Sister of Mine
by chibimaker
Summary: What if Ben Gates had a little sister to come with him on the treasure hunt? Well, Letty is that sister, and with her degree in forensic science, she'll help her brother however she can to help him find the treasure. Riley/OC
1. Chapter 1

1

Two children walked up the stairs into a dark attic, a boy and a girl. The girl was slightly younger than the boy, an attribute that was proven by how much shorter she was. They both had brown hair and green eyes. The boy took a flashlight from his pocket and turned it on, shining it around everything in the attic. The little girl clung to him, because she was afraid of the dark room, even though it was lit up by the lightening from the storm outside the windows of the house.

"We're not a'sposed to be up here." The little girl whispered to him.

"Shh, Letty!" The boy hissed, "You wanna find out, or don't you?" The little girl nodded and followed her brother through the attic, the floor creaking slightly under their feet. When one creak got a little too loud, they stopped, frozen, switching off the flashlight. When nothing happened, the boy turned the flashlight back on and they kept walking through the attic until they came to a shelf. The boy grabbed a stepladder and placed it in front of the shelf, climbing up. The little girl held the ladder still as he reached up to the top shelf, grabbing a large, thick book. He shined his flashlight on the intricate, gilded cover of it. He started climbing down the ladder, and as he was on the last step, he turned around, and the two children gasped at the sight of an aged, mustachioed man standing before them.

"Grandpa!" They exclaimed at the same time.

"You're not supposed to be up here." Their grandfather said, an amused smile on his wrinkled face. He nodded to the book in the boy's hands, "Where'd you get that?"

"We just wanted to know…" The little girl said, a small, scared whimper in her voice. The grandfather looked down at the two, his smile still there.

"Yeah… Well, I suppose you're both old enough, I suppose." He said, the two kids smiled up at him, "You should know the story." They followed him over to another part of the attic, the little girl sitting in his lap while the boy sat opposite him. "Okay, here we go." The grandfather took a deep breath before he began, "It was 1832, on a night much like this. Charles Carroll was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also a member of a secret society known as the Masons… and he knew he was dying. He woke up his stable boy in the middle of the night, and ordered him to take him to the white house to see Andrew Jackson. Because it was _urgent_ that he speak to the president."

"Did he talk to him?" The boy asked.

Their grandfather shook his head, "No, he never got the chance." He said, "The president wasn't there that night. But Charles Carroll had a secret. So he took into his confidence the one person he could. My grandfather's grandfather, Thomas Gates."

"What was the secret?" The boy asked. The grandfather smiled and leaned in.

"A treasure," He whispered, getting the two children excited, "A treasure beyond _all_ imagining. A treasure that had been fought over for centuries by tyrants, pharaohs, emperors, warlords! And every time it changed hands, it grew _larger_! Then, suddenly," He snapped his fingers, "It vanished." The two kids eyes widened, completely engrossed in the story, "It didn't reappear for more than a thousand years, when knights from the first crusade discovered vaults beneath the Temple of Solomon. You see, the knights who found the vault believed that the treasure was too great for any one man. Not even a king. They brought the treasure back to Europe, where they took the name the Knights Templar. Over the next century, they smuggled it out of Europe, and they formed a new brotherhood called the Free Masons, in honor of the builders of the great temple. War followed, by the time of the American Revolution, the treasure had been hidden again, by then, the Masons included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Revere! They knew they had to make sure the treasure would never fall into the hands of the British. So they devised a series of clues, and maps to its location. Over time, the clues were lost, or forgotten, until only one remained, and that was the secret that Charles Carroll entrusted to young Thomas Gates." The grandfather opened the book to the front page, showing them an aged, wrinkled up paper that read in lovely calligraphy _The secret lies with Charlotte._ "The secret lies with Charlotte."

"Who's Charlotte, Grampa?" The little girl asked from his lap.

"Oh, not even Mister Carroll knew that." The grandfather said, he picked her up off his lap and sat her down beside the boy so he could reach into his pocket for something, "Now, look here, you two. The Free Masons, among our founding fathers, left us clues," He pulled out a one dollar bill, "Like these. The unfinished pyramid, the all-seeing eye," He pointed to the different clues on the bill, "Symbols of the Knights Templar: Guardians of the treasure." The two children gazed at the dollar bill intently, "They're speaking to us… through these."

"You mean laughing at us." A voice said from behind them, the two children looked up to see their father coming into the attic, "You know what that dollar represents?" He walked up behind their grandfather, "The entire Gates family fortune." The grandfather folded up the dollar bill, sticking it back in his pocket with a disappointed look on his face, "Six generations of fools… Chasing after fool's gold." The grandfather stood up.

"It's not about the _money_, Patrick!" He said, "It's never been about the _money_!"

"Come on, kids," The father said, "Time to go. You can… say your goodbyes." He turned around and walked back down the stairs out of the attic. The grandfather shook his head disappointedly at his son.

"Grandpa?" The boy asked, looking up at him.

"Hmm?" He turned around to see the two kids.

"Are we knights?" He asked. The grandfather let out an amused chuckle.

"You wanna be?" He asked him, the two nodded, excited grins on their faces. "Alright! Um… kneel." The two kids kneeled down, side-by-side, the boy holding the book in his arms. The grandfather picked up a coat and draped it over his shoulders, and he picked up a blanket to drape over the girl's shoulders. He stood back and smiled at them, "Benjamin Franklin Gates, and Letitia Tyler Gates. You take upon yourselves the duty of the Templars, the Free Masons, and the family Gates. Do you so swear?" The two siblings glanced at each other, then looked back at their grandfather.

At the same time, they both said, "I _so_ swear." The grandfather smiled at them.


	2. Chapter 2

2

_Present day, New York…_

Letitia "Letty" Tyler Gates, the younger sister of Benjamin Gates, looked over the sample she had been given. Her long, brown hair held back in a ponytail, her bangs framing her heart-shaped face. One green eye was shut as she peered at the sample through the microscope. She wore a white lab coat over a baby blue collared shirt and a pair of comfortable blue jeans along with a pair of black converse sneakers. She adjusted the lens of the microscope, letting a thoughtful "Hmm…" escape her lips. She picked up a pencil and scribbled something down on a notepad next to her. At the young age of 28, the young woman had become the head of her own forensic laboratory that worked directly with the New York police department.

She had majored in forensic science at the state university, and had started her own laboratory. She was no living historic encyclopedia, like her brother, but she was an excellent scientist. Along with her assistant, William, she helped as a forensic consultant in dozens of police cases across the state.

Letty picked up the sample and turned to where William was reading the morning paper he had brought in for his break. William was a very nerdy little redheaded boy with brown eyes. He wore the mandatory lab coat along with a plaid collared shirt and khaki pants with a pair of nice shoes and wide-rimmed glasses.

"William," He looked up at her and she handed him the sample, "Put in a call to the police, tell them the results from the tox screen are in, and that foreign substance was identified as store-grade Jell-O." William nodded, taking the sample from her and setting it beside him. Letty jumped when her cellphone began to go off and fished it out of her pocket. Her eyebrows rose to her hairline when she saw the caller ID. She answered it, "Hello?"

"Hey, Letty," Ben greeted, Letty smiled at the sound of her nickname.

"Hey, Ben, I haven't heard from you in a while." She said, she went over to her computer, which was currently breaking down the Jell-O she had been given to the molecular level, "How's Antarctica?" Last she heard, Ben was planning to head to Antarctica with a couple other treasure-hunting enthusiasts to find Charlotte, she hadn't really heard anything after that.

"Actually, I'm back in D.C. now." Ben said, "But, you know, Antarctica is… cold and icy. The weather, though, was actually pretty good for the southernmost point of the world." Letty let out a small laugh.

"That so?" She asked, "So, you go off to the southernmost point of the world, and you decide to call me as soon as you get back, even though we haven't talked to each other in over a years?" She heard Ben laugh nervously.

"Yeah, well… things have… come up." He said, Letty rolled her eyes.

"Uh-huh," She said with a sarcastic drawl, "Like searching for that non-existent treasure?" Ben sighed.

"You _still_ don't think it exists." It was more of a statement than a question.

"_You_ still do?" Letty asked, "But, putting that aside, why'd you call me? It's a rare occasion we get to talk. You must have a reason for it."

"You can still see right through me, can't you?" Ben asked, Letty just knew he had that little smirk on his face when he said this.

"Absolutely," She said, "So, to what do I owe this call?"

"Straight to business, as always," Ben said, "Here's the thing, we've hit something of a… roadblock that involves chemical testing on old documents, and I figured there wasn't anyone much better than you to do it. So I need you to come down to D.C. as quickly as you can."

"Why the rush?" Letty asked, clicking on her computer when a box popped up, telling her the exact contents of the Jell-O, "In case you forgot, Ben, I'm a professional forensic scientist running her own laboratory that works directly with the NYPD, not that little girl playing with a chemistry set. I can't just rush on down to Washington when I'm so busy up here."

"I know you're busy," Ben said, "And I know it's a little troublesome for you—"

"A _little_?" Letty interrupted, "Ben, I'd be leaving my lab in the hands of my assistant who, quite frankly, is a chemical mishap waiting to happen."

"Hey!" William said in offense. Letty turned around.

"Oh, you are, and you know it." She said to him, then turned back to her front. William pouted unhappily, but went back to his work, "I can't just jet off to D.C. at a moment's notice."

"I know," Ben said, "But I _really_ need you down here right now." Letty smirked.

"Oh yeah?" She asked, "How badly do you need me?" William turned around, giving his superior a strange look, having only heard her half of the conversation.

"If you come down here within the next three days," Ben said, "I will get down on my hands and knees and kiss your bare feet." Letty laughed.

"Really?" She asked with a laugh, "My _bare feet_?" William made a face in disgust at her words.

"Yes." Ben said.

"That certainly sounds tempting." Letty said, William gaped at her slightly, scrunching up his nose in disgust. "Tell you what, if you do it out in public at the airport terminal, I'll be over there by tomorrow afternoon." William gaped at her incredulously.

"What about your lab?" Ben asked, Letty sighed.

"Well…" She looked over at her notepad, tapping a pen against it, "I _do_ have some unused vacation time I could start up and just head over."

"Letty, you're a godsend." Ben said.

"Yeah, yeah." Letty said, "But when I get there, I _better_ see you on your hands and knees!" She smiled when she heard Ben laugh at her joke. William's mouth hung open in shock.

"Thanks, Letty." Ben said, "I'll see you here, then."

"Yeah, see you." Letty said, she hit the 'end' button on her phone and stuck it back in her pocket. She turned around to go and see about some vacation time, and saw William gaping at her, "…What?"

"Who _was_ that?" William asked, pointing to the phone in her pocket.

"My brother," Letty said as if it were obvious, William convulsed as if he were about to throw up, "What?"

"That's sick." William said, Letty took a moment to think about what he meant, then her face went pale when he realized what he was suggesting.

"_Ew_! _William_!" She squealed in disgust before she grabbed the newspaper he had brought in that morning, rolled it up and started smacking his head with it, "Is your head just _trapped_ in that gutter, you little _pervert?_!"

* * *

><p>Letty stretched her arms out once she got off the plane, those seats were so freaking cramped! Flying coach sucked. She shouldered her bag, which was the majority of her luggage since she had no intention of staying in Washington D.C. for more than a week (And she never trusted airlines with her luggage). She walked away from the plane and walked into the airport. As she walked through the terminal, she looked around for her brother, hoping she would recognize him after almost a year away from him. She did a double take when she saw a man with brown hair, the same color as hers, and green eyes, the same shade as hers, standing up in a white shirt, dark grey suit jacket, jean pants, and a pair of brown shoes. She smiled at the sight of him and walked over to him. He looked over at her, smiling as she walked closer to him.<p>

"Ben," She greeted with a smile, holding out her arms for a hug.

"Letty," Ben greeted back, hugging her, "You look great. New York must be treating you well." Letty snorted.

"Better than this place ever did." She said, "It's great to see you, Ben, you don't look so bad yourself." She stepped back, adjusting the shoulder strap of her bag, "So, what's this chemical test you want me to help you out with so badly?"

"Hey Ben!" A voice said from behind him, Letty looked back when she saw a young man around her age coming towards them, carrying a couple coffee cups and focusing on something on his phone. He had dark hair, a stylish goatee, wearing a pair of glasses over a pair of green eyes. He wore a grey suit and a stylish grey tie, but he looked like he would rather be wearing something else. Letty found him somewhat attractive, even if he did look a little nerdy, "One: I got you some coffee. Two: The FBI building is, like, two hours from here, so if we could get this Letty person and get out of here, that'd be _great_…" His phone was the center of his attention as he spoke.

"Riley," Ben said, getting his attention, "This is my baby sister, Letitia Gates." Riley looked up, his expression uncaring at first, until he saw Letty's face. He looked her up and down, then smiled, his phone dropping from his hands onto the floor. Letty looked at the phone in confusion, and was a little more confused when he walked over to her, instantly shaking her hand with the one that had been holding the phone.

"Hi, Riley Poole," He said, introducing himself.

"Letitia Gates," Letty said, "Friends call me Letty, nice to meet you." Riley nodded again, he held out the two coffee cups.

"Coffee?" He asked, Letty shook her head.

"Thanks, but I'll pass." She said, Riley nodded, still looking right at her. Ben leaned over to him.

"You're drooling." He whispered to him, Riley jumped, wiping his mouth, "Pick up your phone, you don't want to lose it."

"Right! Phone, phone…" Riley muttered, searching the floor for his phone. Letty looked back at her brother, who smiled at her.

"So… Chemical testing? Where? When? How?" Letty asked with a smirk.

"Well, there's something you should know first." Ben said.

"Found it!" Riley exclaimed with a smile as he held up his phone. The two Gates siblings looked over at him oddly, then looked back to each other.

"Let's go back to my place." Ben said, "We'll take Riley's van. It's just outside." Letty nodded and started heading out of the airport. As she walked, Riley watched her behind as it gently swayed with her steps. He leaned over to Ben.

"Dude, you didn't tell me your sister was such a _hottie_!" Riley hissed to Ben. Ben smiled at his friend.

"I wouldn't touch that, Riley." Ben advised, "If you make her upset, she can kill you without leaving a trace of forensic evidence behind." Riley looked at Ben with wide eyes as he followed his little sister.

* * *

><p>Letty looked around Ben's apartment, not at all surprised to see it wasn't in the best condition for an apartment, but relatively clean.<p>

"Nice place." She said as she put her bag next to the couch before plopping down on it. Riley looked at her feet when she crossed them, and was surprised to see her wearing a pair of sneakers instead of heels. "So, what's so important that you had to drag me all the way to your apartment for?" Ben grabbed a chair and brought it up so he could sit opposite her.

"First of all, you should know," He said, "Is that I don't have the document yet." Letty groaned. If there was one thing she hated, it's when someone was unprepared.

"Ben…"

"Hold on, hold on." Ben stopped her before she went on another one of her rants, "The reason for this, is because the document is of great value, and is very hard to get your hands on." He spoke very carefully, as if he was worried about what her reaction would be.

"Okay, I'll buy that." Letty said, "What's the document?" Ben hesitated in telling her.

"Here we go…" Riley muttered. Letty glanced at him, then looked back at her brother.

"…It's the Declaration of Independence." Ben said. Letty gave him a look, glanced at Riley, then back at Ben.

"Oh my God," She said with a small laugh, "This is about that stupid treasure, isn't it?"

"It's not stupid." Ben said, "It's real."

"How do you know it's real?" Letty demanded, "_Prove_ to me that it's real." Ben smiled.

"I found Charlotte." Ben said, Letty looked at him with wide eyes. She leaned forward in her seat.

"You did?" She asked, "What happened?"

"Amazing," Ben said, "Oh, Letty, she was beautiful. A great ship."

"It was a ship?" Letty asked in surprise, Ben nodded, "Did you find the treasure?"

"No, we found a clue." Ben said, Letty groaned and slumped back in her chair.

"Of _course_ you did…" She muttered.

"But it's going to lead us to the treasure!" Ben said, before Letty could retort, Ben held up his hand, "Now look, we know for a fact that someone is going to steal it. What we're hoping is that, because we tell them, they'll let us take a peek at the Declaration."

"And just _what_ is so important about the Declaration of Independence that you need to run chemical tests on it?" Letty asked.

"There's a map on the back of it." Ben said. Letty rolled her eyes, laughing in disbelief.

"Ben, there is no _map_ on the back of the Declaration of Independence!" She said, "And even if there was, how would you see it?"

"Well, that's where you come in." Ben said, "You help us make the invisible map visible." Letty's eyebrows rose to her hairline.

"_Oh_, no." She said, she stood up, "You are _not_ dragging me into this. Not again."

"Letty, come on," Ben said, standing up to stop her, "Ten years ago, you would have been _ecstatic_ to help me out."

"That's just it, Ben!" Letty said, "That was _then_, this is _now_! Treasure hunting was fun when we were kids, but we're adults now! We're too old to let ourselves be swept away in a hunt for a treasure that doesn't exist!"

"Letty, please," Ben said, "Do this for me, and I will owe you the favor of all favors."

"No! I'm tired of doing favors for you!" Letty said, "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep my lab's reputation spotless, when a member of the Gates family keeps sending me stuff to analyze? I cannot even _count_ how many times you've sent me a— a lint ball from some president's house because you think they had some stuff hidden in their couch!"

"Letty," Ben said, his voice calm, "If you do this, I will pay you back in the best way possible." Letty raised a curious brow at his words.

"How?" She asked slowly. Ben reached into his jacket and pulled out a brochure.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked, handing it to her. She took it and looked up at him.

"A brochure for a hotel?" She asked.

"Wrong," Ben said, "It is a brochure for a five-star _luxury_ hotel, in France." Letty looked mildly surprised and opened up the brochure, looking over it, "Picture this: You're sitting on a chair, on a balcony, in the penthouse suite of this hotel." Letty smiled at the thought.

"I like the sound of that." She said.

"Wait, it gets better," Ben said, "Now, you are completely relaxed from the entire day you've had of great spa treatments. Seaweed wraps, facials, manicures, pedicures, and a massage from a handsome male masseuse." Letty bit her lip when she smiled, "Next to your chair is the most decadent, delicious chocolate desert you've ever had, made by a gourmet chef."

"I _really_ like the sound of that." She said, she pushed the smile away as she looked up at her brother, "But if you think a fancy hotel is going to get me to change my mind, you got another thing coming."

"I haven't told you the best part, yet." Ben said, "You don't pay for a thing. It's all on me." Letty's eyes widened and she gaped at her brother.

"Seriously?" She asked in surprise, "You'd pay for the whole thing?"

"The whole thing." Ben repeated. Letty looked down at the brochure, biting her lip, as she normally did when she was thinking hard.

"God, _why_ do you have to know my weaknesses?" She demanded angrily, Ben grinned when he realized she had taken the bait, and he had reeled her in, "Fine. You talked me into it. I'll help you out." Ben and Riley grinned at each other, "So, where do we start?"

"Well, first we warn the FBI," Ben said, "And then we ask to see the Declaration."

"Why do they need to be warned?" Letty asked.

"I'll explain it on the way over." Ben said, pushing his sister forward and out of his apartment.

* * *

><p>The three of them walked out of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building, having just been shot down by the bureau. Riley wasn't exactly pleased about it, seeing as how they were in there for over an hour, trying to explain it to them.<p>

"Is it really so _hard_ to believe that someone is gonna steal the Declaration of Independence?" He asked angrily.

"The FBI gets ten thousand tips a week," Letty said, "They're not gonna worry about something they're sure is safe."

"Anyone who can do anything is gonna think we're crazy," Riley kept ranting, "Anyone crazy enough to believe us isn't gonna want to help." Ben stopped walking and looked back at his friend.

"We don't need someone crazy." He said, "One step short of crazy, what do you get?"

"…Obsessed!" Riley said, as if it were obvious.

"Passionate." Ben corrected. Letty rolled her eyes at her brother's words.

"So, what's the next best thing to FBI?" Letty asked.

"That would be the National Archives." Ben said, "Let's go."

* * *

><p>Ben, Riley, and Letty sat together as they waited for the person in charge to speak to them. Letty noticed a pile of brochures and picked one up, reading National Archives Anniversary Gala on the front. Ben noticed it and reached over Riley to take it from her so he could look over it himself. She pouted at him when he did, and snatched it back.<p>

"Letty!" Ben said, disbelieving that his sister took it from him.

"Ben!" Letty mimicked his tone, Ben scowled and snatched it back.

"Not nice." Ben said, opening the brochure up and reading the inside. Letty rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, facing away from him.

They looked up when the secretary to the office opened the door, "Dr. Chase can see you now, Mr. Brown." Ben smiled at her.

"Thank you." He said, the three of them stood up.

"Mr. Brown?" Riley questioned.

"Family name doesn't get a lot of respect in the academic community." Ben explained in a low voice.

"Huh, being kept down by the man." Riley muttered with a smirk. They walked into the office and saw a lovely blonde-haired woman with bright eyes and a beautiful diamond-shaped face. She wore a sleek suit, and she held up a finger to show them that she would speak with them in a minute once she was finished on the phone, "…Very _cute_ man." Letty frowned slightly at his words, but let it pass. After all, it wasn't she was Riley's _girlfriend_ or anything.

"Thank you." The woman said to whoever was on the phone, then hung up. She looked up at the three of them with a smile, "Good afternoon." She stood up from her chair and walked over to them, shaking their hands, "Abigail Chase."

"Paul Brown." Ben said, using a fake name.

"Nice to meet you." She went over to Letty, who shook her hand as well.

"Amy Anderson." She said, making up a fake name on the spot. Dr. Chase moved over to Riley, who shook her hand with a smile.

"Bill." Riley said.

"Nice to meet you, Bill." Dr. Chase said, she looked over at Ben, "How may I help you?"

"Your accent," Ben said, noticing how she spoke, "Pennsylvania Dutch?"

"Saxony German." Dr. Chase said, smiling a little at the recognition.

"Oh." Ben said as she stepped away to go back behind her desk.

"You're not American?" Riley asked in surprise.

"Oh, I _am_ an American." Dr. Chase said, "I just wasn't born here— Please don't touch that!" She pointed at where Ben was observing a collection of buttons on the mantel in her office.

"Sorry," Ben said, pulling his hand away, "Neat collection. George Washington's campaign buttons. You're missing the 1789 inaugural, though. I found one once."

"That's very fortunate for you." Dr. Chase said, "Now you told my assistant this was an urgent matter?"

"Ah, yes ma'am." Ben said, moving moved away from the mantel and went sitting in one of the chairs in front of her desk, Riley took the other one. Letty, finding nowhere else to sit, simply leaned against the wall behind them. "Well, I'm just gonna get straight to the point. Someone's going to steal the Declaration of Independence." Dr. Chase's friendly smile disappeared as she looked at the two men in front of her.

"It's true." Riley said when he saw the look that asked, 'Is this a joke, or is this for real?'

"I think I better put you three in touch with the FBI—" She reached for her phone.

"We've been to the FBI." Ben said, stopping her.

"And?" She prodded.

"They assured us that the Declaration cannot possibly be stolen." Riley said.

"They're right." Dr. Chase said.

"My friends and I are less certain," Ben began, "However, if we were given the privilege of examining the document, we would be able to tell you, for certain, if the document were actually in any danger." Dr. Chase leaned back in her seat.

"What do you think you're gonna find?" She asked them.

"We believe…" Ben began hesitantly, "That there's an… encryption on the back."

"An encryption… like a code?" Dr. Chase asked.

"Yes ma'am." Ben said.

"Of what?" Dr. Chase asked.

"A… Cartograph." Ben said, trying to make it sound more intelligent than it actually was.

"A map?" Dr. Chase asked doubtfully.

"Yes ma'am." Ben said.

"A map of what?" She asked him, Letty sighed internally, thinking _"Here we go…"_

"The… location of," Ben cleared his throat, "Of hidden items of… historic and… intrinsic value." Dr. Chase looked at him incredulously.

"…A _treasure map_?" She asked.

"That's where we lost the FBI." Letty said.

"You're treasure hunters, aren't you?" Dr. Chase asked, Riley looked to Ben so he could explain.

"We're more like treasure protectors." Ben corrected.

"Mr. Brown," Dr. Chase began, "I have personally seen the back of the Declaration of Independence, and I promise you, the only thing there is a notation that reads, 'Original Declaration of Independence…'"

"'Of Independence,'" Ben said with her, making her pause, "'Dated 4, July, 1776.' Yes ma'am."

"But no map." Dr. Chase said, Riley and Ben shared a glance. Riley inconspicuously shook his head, Ben looked back at Letty, who did the same. Ben looked back at Dr. Chase, who looked at him, expecting him to say something. Ben leaned forward with a little, hopeful smile.

"It's invisible." Ben said, Dr. Chase took on a face of sarcastic realization.

"…And _that's_ where we lost the Department of Homeland Security." Letty said, leaning her head back against the wall with her eyes shut in exasperation.

"What led you to believe there was this invisible map?" Dr. Chase asked.

"We found an engraving on the stem of a 200 year old pipe." Ben said.

"Owned by Free Masons." Riley put in, Dr. Chase nodded.

"May I see the pipe?" She asked, Letty looked over at Ben and Riley, hoping they brought it along, but they didn't pull it out.

"We don't… have it." Riley said awkwardly. Dr. Chase nodded.

"Did Bigfoot take it?" She asked, faking seriousness.

"Well, it was nice meeting you." Ben said as he got up from his chair.

"Nice to meet you, too." Dr. Chase said, trying to hold back a smile, but failing. Letty got off of the wall, and Riley stood up from his own chair, both preparing to leave.

"You know," Ben said to her, "That really _is_ a nice collection." He pointed to the campaign buttons, "Must've taken you a long time to hunt down all that history." Dr. Chase let a small smile come onto her face, silently taking the compliment for her efforts.

The three of them walked out of the national archives and into the room where the documents, including the Declaration, were on display.

"If it's any consolation," Riley said, "You had me convinced."

"It's not." Ben said. She nodded in understanding as he walked towards the Declaration.

"You know, I was thinking, what if we go public?" Riley asked, "Plaster this story all over the internet? It's not like we have our… reputations to worry about."

"_I_ do!" Letty said, "Do you have any idea how hard it is for someone of the academic community to come to_ my_ lab? It's near impossible!"

"Fine, we won't mention your name." Riley said to her, "Although, I don't think that's exactly gonna scare Ian away."

"Ian?" Letty questioned, looking over at where her brother was staring at the Declaration, "As in… Ian from the poker game? The cute blonde guy with the accent you sent me a picture of? _That_ Ian?"

"You thought he was _cute_?" Riley asked, scrunching up his nose. Letty planted her hands on her hips.

"What? I'm not allowed to think accents are sexy?" She asked him hotly. Riley put his hands up in a surrendering motion.

"A hundred and eighty years of searching, and I'm three feet away." Ben murmured, seeming to have ignored their words to each other as he stared at the Declaration of Independence, "Of all the words written here about freedom, there's a line that's at the heart of all the others." Letty looked at her brother as he kept speaking, "_'When a long train of abuses, usurpations, pursuing variably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and provide new guards for their future security…'_ People don't talk that way anymore."

"Beautiful…" Riley murmured, "No idea what you said."

"It means if there's something wrong," Ben explained, "Those who have the ability to take action have the _responsibility_ to take action." Letty and Riley shared a glance, a little confused by Ben's words, "I'm gonna steal it." They both looked up at him in surprise.

Letty and Riley chuckled slightly, "…What?" Riley asked.

"I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence." Ben said, and then he walked away. Riley and Letty shared a nervous glance, and followed him.


	3. Chapter 3

3

Letty, Riley sat on the stairs of the Lincoln memorial, looking out at the Washington monument that stood a little further away, Ben stood on the stairs, looking up at the Lincoln Memorial statue.

"This is… huge." Letty said, "_Prison_ huge." He looked up at Ben, "You _are_ gonna go to prison, you realize that, don't you?"

"Yeah, probably." Ben said casually.

"This would… probably bother most people." Riley said.

"Ian's gonna try to steal it," Ben reasoned, "If he succeeds, he'll destroy the Declaration. Fact is, the only way to protect the Declaration _is_ to steal it. It's upside-down." He sat down next to Riley, "I don't think there's a choice."

Riley stood up, "Ben, for God's sakes, it's like… stealing a national monument. It's like… stealing _him_!" He gestured to the statue of Lincoln, "It can't be done. Not it _shouldn't_ be done, it _can't_ be done!" When Ben didn't look like he cared, Riley sighed, "Let me prove it to you."

* * *

><p>"Okay, Ben," Riley said in a low voice as he and Letty stood in front of Ben at a desk, "Pay attention. I've brought you to the Library of Congress. Why? Because it's the biggest library in the world. Over 20 million books, and they're all saying the same exact thing. <em>Listen<em> to Riley." Ben looked up from a book he had been going over to give his friend his attention, "What we have here, my friend, is an entire layout of the archives."

"We have… builder's blueprints," Letty said, holding up the documents, "And construction orders, phone lines, water and sewage. We got it all." Riley picked up a book and held it in front of Ben.

"Now, when the Declaration's on display," He pointed to the picture, "It is surrounded by guards, and video monitors, and little families from Iowa, and little kids on their eighth grade field trip. And beneath an _inch_ of bulletproof glass is an army of sensors and heat monitors that will go off if someone gets too close with a high fever."

Letty turned the page, "Now, when it's _not_ on display, it is lowered into a four-foot thick, concrete, _steel plated_ vault, that just so happens to be equipped with an electronic combination lock, and biometric access denial systems." Ben looked over the books, then back at his friend and sister.

"You know, Thomas Edison tried and failed nearly 2,000 times to develop the carbonized, cotton-thread filament for the incandescent light bulb?" Ben asked, Letty and Riley looked at him in confusion.

"Edison…?" Riley questioned.

"And when asked about it," Ben continued, "He said, 'I didn't fail. I found out 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb,' but he only needed to find _one_ way to make it work." Ben reached for the book he had been reading and put it before them, "The preservation room." Riley and Letty looked at the book, seeing the pictures, "Enjoy, go ahead." Riley sat down and took the book in his hands. "Do you know what the preservation room is for?"

"Delicious jams and jellies?" Riley asked, Letty rolled her eyes.

"_No_, it's the room where they clean, repair, and maintain the documents and the storage housings when they aren't on display or in the vault." She said, she looked over at her brother for confirmation.

"Right." Ben said, nodding once as her answer, "Now, when the case needs work, they take it out of the vault, directly across the hall, and into the preservation room. The best time for us, or Ian, to steal it would be during the Gala this weekend. When the guards are distracted by the VIPs upstairs, but we'll make our way to the preservation room, where there is much. Less. Security." Ben leaned back in his chair, and Letty knew he was just _basking_ in the victorious glory of his plan.

"Well… If Ian…" Riley stammered out, trying to find a way how it might not work, "Uh… Preservation… Hmph… The Gala…" He looked up at Ben, "…This might be possible."

Ben nodded, "It might." Letty groaned, then slapped Riley upside his head.

"Don't encourage him!" She scolded, she looked over at her brother, "You're just making his ego bigger." Ben smirked at her, and she smirked back.

* * *

><p>Riley drove his van through the city, Letty beside him in the passenger seat. They rode in an awkward silence, neither of them much liking the idea of stealing the Declaration of Independence.<p>

"So…" Riley began awkwardly, Letty looked over at him, "Forensic scientist, huh?"

"Yep." Letty said shortly, nodding her head.

"…With your own lab in New York?" Riley continued, trying to make conversation.

"Uh-huh." Letty said, nodding again. They both sat in an awkward silence again, Riley tapped his finger on the wheel in anxiousness.

"New York must be a…" He tried to keep her talking, "Pretty good place for a lab."

"What do you mean?" Letty asked, confused by his words.

"Well, you know," Riley shrugged, "There must be, like, a thousand different stuff for you to check out in New York. And lots of people must come to… check if their baby daddy is who they think it is or something, right?" Letty gave him a scowl.

"Are you saying my lab is only good for DNA?" She asked him, sounding offended. Riley started to panic.

"No! No, no, no!" He said quickly with a nervous laugh, "I just mean… I… Have you ever watched Law and Order?" Letty scrunched her nose at him.

"What?"

"It's just— I mean, I," He cleared his throat, "There's one that takes place in New York, and there's a lot of crime in it, so…"

"Riley, it's a _crime show_." Letty said, "Of course there's going to be a lot of crime in it!" Riley shrugged awkwardly.

"Sorry, sorry." He said, "I was just interested, that's all… I mean, I've never met a forensic scientist before."

"Well, I've never met a technological guy like you before," Letty said with a small smirk, "So I guess we're even."

"Like me?" Riley questioned.

"Oh, you know," Letty said, "Good with computers and hacking, eyes damaged from staring at computer screens most of your life," She pointed to where his glasses that were resting in his pocket, "Kinda cute, kinda nerdy." She blushed slightly at her last words.

"Wait, what was that last part?" Riley asked, glancing at her.

"What, nerdy?" Letty asked evasively, looking out the window, the blush still evident on her cheeks, "Hey, we're here. Stop the car." Riley pulled up to a subway station entrance, grabbed a small duffle bag, and they both walked out and down the stairs. They snuck their way into the room near the tunnel marked 'Employees only' and shut the door behind them.

"Okay, according to my calculations," Riley said, looking at his phone, "Our best bet for hacking the National Archive cameras should be…" He walked over to a pole and set his bag down, "Right here." He unzipped it and pulled out an electric cutter, he handed it to Letty, who stared at it unhappily.

"I can't believe I'm about to help my brother commit a federal crime." She muttered as she turned it on and began cutting through the metal of the pole, "My lab is going to go in the toilet." She quickly finished the hole and took out the plastic of it, she blew away any remaining pieces that might get in the way of Riley's extendable camera. He made a double check on the claw he had attached to the camera's underside that he would use to hack into the cameras before handing it to Letty so she could stick it in while he went over to his computer to see where it was going.

"Okay, keep going." Riley said, Letty did as he said and pushed the camera up further into the pole, "Yeah, keep going." Letty, deciding it would be a waste of time to just stop and wait for him to tell her if it was okay, just started continually pushing it up the pole. "Wait, stop! Stop!" She stopped, "Bring it down just a little bit." Letty did as he said and brought it down a tad, "Perfect." He typed on his computer a couple times, smiling at the sight of the cables for the security cameras, "Hello." Using a joystick, Riley moved the claw that he had attached to the camera so that it reached out and attached to the cable, getting the camera feed of the hallway in between the vault and the preservation room, "Hallway…" He recorded a few, uneventful seconds, then stopped. He moved the claw down to the cable beneath it to the preservation room, recording a few more uneventful seconds, "_That's_ what I want." He picked up the router he was using for the computer and hid it behind the pole where no one would see it.

Letty looked up when she heard footsteps outside the door. "Someone's coming!" Riley looked up, panicking.

"What do we do?" He asked, frantically getting his computer.

"We _hide_, stupid!" Letty said.

"_Where?_!" Riley asked, Letty heard the footsteps getting louder and saw a small spot behind a cart that was holding a few tools. She turned him around and pushed him towards it and pushing him down. She squatted down and squeezed herself in so they were sitting across from each other in very close quarters. The door opened and a man looked around the room.

"Ah-ha." He said, seeing a coffee mug resting on a shelf that was covered in electric wires. He picked it up and turned around, "Hey, Ricky! You can quit lookin', I found it!" He shut the door, and Riley and Letty let out a sigh of relief.

"That was way too close." Letty said, turning back to Riley. She felt something poking her leg and frowned, "Riley?"

"Yeah?"

"Something is touching my leg, what is it?" She asked, not looking down to see for herself. Riley looked down, and his face flushed slightly, "Please tell me it's not what I think it is."

"…That depends on what you think it is." Riley said with a nervous smile.

"Oh, _God_…!" Letty jumped up and scrambled up, Riley following at a much slower pace. "Riley! What the _hell?_!"

"Sorry!" Riley said, "But when I get _that_ close to a hot girl, that tends to happen!" He adjusted his pants and walked past her. Letty paused when his words began to settle in her mind.

"You think I'm hot?" She asked him, Riley said nothing as he opened the door.

"Let's just go…" He muttered. Letty smiled slightly to herself and followed him up the stairs and out of the subway back to the van. "Ben never hears about this."

"Agreed." Letty said with a nod as she got in the driver's seat. Behind her, Riley hooked up a mobile internet cord to his computer and turned it on, getting the live feed from the cameras, and the feed he had recorded on hard drive.

He smiled at his success. "Game on."

* * *

><p>Letty went through her bag, "Ah-ha! I knew I had it somewhere!" She pulled out a small, silver cylinder and tossed it to Riley, "It's a special laser I use when I need to heat up a specific point on something to get a reaction. That should be able to set off the heat sensors from a distance." Riley pressed the button on it, looking up at the lime green dot that now appeared on the ceiling.<p>

"Cool." He said, seeing it and turning it off, "Mind if I test it?"

"Knock yourself out." Letty said, waving him off as he went to go and find an outdoor thermometer to test it on as she kept going through the bag, "And as for you, Ben." She pulled out a small container of a pale, yellow powder. She turned around and showed it to him, "This should help you with that figuring out the room's security code." She walked over next to her brother and unscrewed the top off the container, used a small knife to scoop some out and put it in a small cup of water, "Simply mix, and anything you put it in it will become visible in ultraviolet-light."

"Anything at all?" Ben asked, Letty nodded, tapping the knife against the side of the cup before putting it down.

"Even fingerprints." She dipped her index finger in the cloudy water then went to the table, tapping two spots then dragging her finger across the wood. She picked up the ultraviolet-pen and shined it on where she had touched, showing a smiley face made from her fingerprints, "If an object is covered in it, and someone touches it, it'll get on their fingers and stay there for about three days, even through washing your hands. But when they touch something, chances are, it will be visible in that light for about a week."

"Long enough to make our way into the room without getting caught." Letty nodded.

"Right." She said, Ben smiled at his sister.

"I said it once, and I'll say it again," He said, "Letty, you're a godsend." He pulled her into a one-arm hug. She smiled at him as he pulled away.

"I know I am." She said smugly as Ben picked up his 1789 inaugural George Washington campaign button and dipped it into the water, then carefully placed it in a red gift box and shut it, wrapping it up and heading towards the door.

"Okay, I'm going to go stick this in Dr. Chase's mailbox," Ben said, "And you and Riley are going to set off the heat sensors for the Declaration of Independence."

"Wait, what? Why do I have to go?" Letty asked, not happy about this news.

"Because it'll be less conspicuous for Riley." Ben explained, "Now, come on." Letty sighed and followed her brother out of the room.

* * *

><p>"Are you <em>sure<em> you've never been on TV before?" Riley asked jokingly as he pointed his camera at her. Letty smiled at him, "Because you look too good to not have been."

"Stop filming me and focus on what we're here for!" She whispered with a smile as she moved the camera towards where a man was looking at the Declaration of Independence, "And no, I've never been on TV."

"You double-check that?" Riley asked, Letty lightly slapped his arm and he laughed.

"Why are you talking to me, anyway?" She asked, "We just set them off, then get out, right?"

"Yeah, well, if we look like a couple on a date," Riley said, "People won't be quite as suspicious of us for doing you-know-what." Letty rolled her eyes.

"That doesn't mean you have to get so into it." She said, still smiling slightly from Riley's attention.

"That? That was _not_ getting into it." Riley said, "_This_ is getting too much into it." He put his hand on her butt, and Letty jumped, smacking his hand away.

"Riley!" She all-but squealed at him.

"Just an example." Riley said innocently as he pointed the camera at the Declaration when an elderly woman was coming up to it. He turned on the laser and pointed it at one of the heat sensors that was visible through the camera lens. Letty looked around to see if anyone noticed the laser, which apparently, no one did. "You have a very nice butt, by the way." Letty scowled at him, although she was smiling slightly from the compliment (Faking faces had never been her strong suit).

"Don't make me hit you." She threatened. After about two minutes of Riley pointing the laser at the heat sensors, a few guards were starting to show up, saying that the exhibit was going to be temporarily closed. "Let's go." Riley turned off the laser and they both walked calmly out of the room with everyone else, going unnoticed by the guards as they walked back into the van. Letty drove it back to Ben's apartment, while Riley went over the surveillance, and after a moment, he saw something appearing, and Letty heard all the words that were spoken.

"Do this by the book?" A man asked.

"Hallway's secure." Another man said, Riley watched as two people dressed in white walked through from the vault to the preservation room, carrying the Declaration.

"Keep the document level." The first man said to the two carrying it.

"Got it." One of them said.

"What have you got?" Dr. Chase asked them once they came into the preservation room.

"Heat sensor went off in the Declaration frame." He said.

"Run full diagnostics, then I want them all changed out." Dr. Chase said, Riley let out a small laugh in disbelief.

"Our evil plan is working." He muttered. Letty sighed.

"So it seems." She said.

* * *

><p><em>The next night…<em>

"And you're sure you set it up?" Ben asked.

"_Yes_, for the umpteenth time." Letty said in exasperation as she tried to sit still sitting the back of Riley's van, "I set up every part of the testing we could ever possibly need for the Declaration. We're at HASMAT level in there, trust me."

"Just double checking." Ben said, the van went over a bump, and Letty fell off her seat.

"How much longer until we get there? Because I'm starting to feel like a Mexican jumping bean." She said as she got back in her seat.

"We're pulling up right now." Riley said as he moved the van so it would park on the side of the road opposite that of the National Archive building. Ben, dressed as a janitor, came out of the van. Riley went over to him before he shut the door, "Now Ben, are you sure we should—" He shut the door in Riley's face, and Letty giggled, "I guess so." Riley sighed as he set up his head piece so he could talk to Ben. Letty did the same with her own headpiece. Ben wore and earwig that was almost undetectable, and since it was made of silicon, it wouldn't be detected by the metal detectors on the inside of the building.

"Riley, can you hear me?" Ben asked as he crossed the road.

"Unfortunately, yeah." Riley said.

"Letty? How about you?" Ben asked.

"Loud and clear." Letty said, "We're all set." Ben nodded and went past the security guard and into the building without any trouble. Once inside, Ben headed straight for the bathroom and took off the coveralls to reveal the tuxedo underneath. He disposed of the belt, except for the compact drill, and the coveralls in the garbage. He hid the drill in his pocket and looked at himself in the mirror, adjusting his tie and straightening his tux.

"How do you look?" Riley asked him.

"Not bad." Ben said.

"Mazeltov." Riley replied. Ben walked out of the bathroom and into the gala party. He grabbed a pair of champagnes and walked over to the one person who could help him get into the preservation room.

"For you." Dr. Abigail Chase turned around and looked at Ben in surprise.

"Oh, Mr. Brown." She said, Dr. Chase was wearing a beautiful black gown with multiple skirts, her blonde hair had been done up in a bun, and she wore make-up that greatly brought out the color of her eyes.

"Dr. Chase." Ben greeted with a nod as she took the champagne.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him.

"Is that that hot girl?" Riley asked over the headset. Letty shot him a look, "How does she look?"

"She's not _that_ hot." She said, sounding a little offended.

"I made a last minute donation." Ben said to her, "Pretty big one."

"Well, on that subject, thank you for your wonderful gift." Dr. Chase said.

"Oh, you _did_ get it?" Ben asked.

"Yes, thank you." Dr. Chase said, Ben let out a relieved sigh.

"Oh, good." He said.

"You know, I really couldn't accept something like that normally, but, um…" Dr. Chase paused, "I really wanted it." The two of them laughed a little.

"Well, you needed it." Ben said, Dr. Chase nodded.

"Come on, Romeo, let's _move_!" Letty said to him, hoping that would get her brother to hurry up.

"I have been wondering though," Dr. Chase began, "What the engraving indicated. You know, on the pipe that Bigfoot took?" Ben was about to answer, when someone came up to them.

"Hi," Ben turned to see a man holding two champagne glasses had come up to them, looking between them curiously. He held up a glass to Dr. Chase, "Here you go."

"Oh, um, Dr. Herbert, this is Mr. Brown." Dr. Chase said, introducing the two.

"Hi there," Ben greeted politely.

"Hello." Dr. Herbert said.

"Who's the stiff?" Riley asked.

"Well, here, why don't you let me take _that_," He reached under Dr. Chase's glass and held it by the bottom, "So you can take _that_ off his hands." Dr. Chase took the glass handed to her by Dr. Herbert.

"Thank you." Dr. Chase said, smiling awkwardly at Dr. Herbert.

"A toast," Ben proposed, raising his glass, "To high treason." The two looked at him in confusion for his toasting choice, "That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, be-headed, drawn and quartered, and— Oh! Oh, my personal favorite, had their entrails cut out and _burned_!" He laughed a little, but the two others did not.

"Ben, _ew_!" Letty said, "That is _not_ gala party conversation!"

"So," Ben said, trying to clear the awkward air, "Here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right." His gaze didn't stray from Dr. Chase as he spoke, looking directly into her eyes, "What they _knew_ was right." He put his glass to his lips, as did Dr. Herbert and Dr. Chase, and instead of simply taking a sip of the champagne, Ben started gulping down the entire drink in his glass, much to the surprise of the two near him. He stumbled a little from the light-headedness from the alcohol. He smiled at them, "Well, goodnight." He walked away.

"Goodnight." The two doctors said, Dr. Chase looking after Ben with a keen interest.

Ben headed back to the bathroom, getting rid of his empty glass, dumping out the contents of Dr. Chase's class in a water fountain as he pulled a plastic bag out from his pocket. He went into the stall in the bathroom with the diaper-changing station, and opened it up, using it for a table as he pulled out a bottle of iodine, and a cotton ball.

"You said I needed iodine, right?" Ben asked his sister over the communications link between them.

"Yes, iodine." Letty confirmed, "And make sure that there's no way for the gas to get out of the bag, or it won't stick to the glass."

"Got it covered." Ben said, pulling out a small tube of Krazy brand superglue. He covered the cotton ball in iodine and stuck it in the bag. He squirted the glue along the sealing portion of the plastic bag and closed it.

"This had better work." Riley said, his fingers tapping in nervousness.

"You dare doubt my forensic knowledge?" Letty asked jokingly, Riley allowed a small smirk to come onto his face, despite his anxiety.

After a moment, Riley spoke again to Ben, "How's it look?"

"It's working." Ben said, watching in awe as Dr. Chase's fingerprints appeared on the glass.

"Unbelievable." Riley said with a smile, "Never doubt a forensic specialist."

"Thank you." Letty said, silently basking in her victory.

Ben pulled out a latex glove, using sewing scissors to cut off the thumb and put it on his own thumb. He opened the bag back up with a yank and pulled the glass back out. He looked around the fingerprints on the glass, and found where her thumbprint was. He ever-so-carefully put his latex-covered thumb over her print, and pulled off a perfect copy of Abigail Chase's thumbprint from the glass.

"Letty, you're a godsend." Ben said, praising his sister's genius for the idea.

"I know." Letty said with a smile. Ben walked out of the bathroom and over to a restricted elevator that only those who worked in the National Archives could use, because it required a thumbprint to open up to take them to the vault below. He pressed his thumb to the reader in front of the elevator, and the machine scanned it, recognizing him as Abigail Chase and let him in. He stepped into the elevator, acting completely casual for any nearby security cameras. Once the doors shut, he pulled of the latex glove and put it in his pocket to use later.

"We're in the elevator." He said to Riley.

"Okay," Riley said, "I'm gonna turn off the surveillance cameras. Ready? In 5, 4, 3, now." Riley hit a button on his keyboard, switching the live feed to the continuously playing loop feed of the hallway he had recorded the other day, "Ben Gates, you are now the invisible man." He watched on the live feed as Ben exited the elevator and went over to the preservation room.

"I'm here." He said, pulling out a keyboard from the wall.

"Gimme the letters for her password." Riley said, pulling up a program on his computer, "What have you got for me?" Ben pulled out the ultraviolet light pen Letty had given him and shone it on the keys. He smiled when he saw the fingerprints for the password come up, "Hit me with it."

"A, E, F, G, L, O, R, V, Y." Ben said, reading off each key with Dr. Chase's fingerprint.

"Anagrams being listed…" Riley said as he inputted the letters, seeing many different words come up as results. Letty came up next to him to see the passwords, "Okay, top results: A glove fry, a very golf, fargo levy, gravy floe, valey frog," Ben shook his head at Riley's listings, knowing none of those could be the passwords, "Also ago fly rev, uh, gro fly a, are fly gov, era fly gov, gov rey—"

"It's Valley Forge." Ben said, seeing how the words came together.

"Valley for… I don't have that on my computer." Riley said going over the passwords.

"No, I see it." Letty pointed to the letters he put in, "She must've pressed the L twice. Valley forge was a turning point in the American revolution." Riley looked over at her.

"I thought Ben was the history buff?" He said, Letty nodded.

"He is, doesn't mean all the facts about American history he drilled into my head didn't stay there." Letty said with a smile.

The doors for the preservation room slid open once they accepted the password, and he walked through them, "We're in."

"Okay, science-y, techie, hot," Riley listed off, "Can I marry you?" Letty looked at him in surprise.

"Did you just hit on me?" She asked him.

"Did you just hit on my sister?" Ben asked, switching on the lights in the preservation room. "Riley, I warned you about my sister, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but, hey," Riley shrugged, "A man is only so resistant to such hotness." Letty laughed, patting his shoulder.

"Marriage is a little fast there, big guy." She said as Ben went over to the case where the Declaration of Independence was held, pulling out the compact drill he had taken from the janitor's belt.

"Hurry it up, Ben." Riley said, seeing that it took Ben a little over thirty seconds to get out the first screw. "You got about one…" He stopped, seeing the feed on the cameras suddenly turn to static. He pressed a few keys to get it back, but nothing happened, "I lost my feed."

"What?" Ben asked in shock.

"I lost my feed, Ben!" Riley repeated, messing with the computer wires to try and get it back. "I don't know where anyone is! I-I have nothing! Ben, I have _nothing_!"

"Ben, get out of there!" Letty said into the headset, "Now! Get out of there!" Ben picked up the case.

"I'm taking the whole thing." Ben said, walking out of the room with it, "I'll get it out in the elevator."

"What are you talking abo—" Letty stopped, realizing he was taking the entire case, "Is it heavy?" Ben walked out of the room and hit the 'up' button on the elevator with his foot. He waited for it to come down, holding the Declaration. He heard a sort of cracking noise and turned around to see Ian, along with a few other goons from the Antarctica trip walking in, all dressed in black. They stopped when they saw Ben, holding the casing.

"Gates…" Ian said in surprise, not expecting him to be alive after the explosion on the Charlotte. One of his men pulled out a gun with a silencer attached and started shooting at Ben. Each bullet hit the glass of the casing, but the force was enough to make Ben jump back into the elevator doors. Riley and Letty jumped at the sound of the bullets.

"What was that?" Riley demanded.

The elevator doors opened behind Ben, and he walked in, hitting the button with his elbow, avoiding another shot.

"Ben, who's shooting?" Letty demanded as the doors began to close. When she heard silence, she started to worry, "Ben? Are you still there?" No reply, "Ben!"

"I'm in the elevator." Ben said as he yanked the screws out one by one as quickly as possible, "Ian's here. There was, uh… shooting."

"I _hate_ that guy…" Riley muttered angrily. Ben pulled out the last screw and pulled out the Declaration, carefully rolling it up and placing it in a plastic wrapping to protect it until they were able to properly examine it. He left the elevator, looking completely casual, and was about to head back into the gala, but he saw Dr. Chase on the other side, so he left, heading to the National Archive's gift shop to avoid her. He made sure she didn't see him as she passed by, and let out a sigh of relief as she walked away. He was about to head out of the gift shop, when someone spoke up, getting his attention.

"Are you trying to steal that?" Ben looked in the direction of the voice and saw the gift shop cashier looking at him, and he looked to see the tube of paper was visible in his jacket. He looked over at a barrel that said 'Actual Size Declaration of Independence Reproductions'.

"Oh… Um…" He tried to come up with a good excuse.

"It's thirty five dollars." She said.

"For this?" Ben asked, pulling it out and showing it to her.

"Yeah." The clerk said.

"That's a lot." He said, coming over to the cashier and putting it on the desk.

"Hey, I don't make the prices." The clerk said, waiting for Ben to pull out his wallet, and get out enough cash to pay for it. He pulled out all the dollar bills in his wallet.

"Let's see… I have…" He pulled out all the dollar bills in his wallet, "Thirty two…" He reached into his back pocket to see if he had enough change to pay for the rest. He didn't, putting only two quarters, two nickels, and a penny on the table, "Fifty seven…" He hoped she would make an exception.

"We take Visa." The clerk said.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Riley impatiently tapped the steering wheel of the car, "Where are you, Ben…?" He asked quietly.

"He'll be here." Letty said firmly, but still nervous herself, "Just be patient." She looked anxiously at the security cameras, still seeing the static from when Riley lost his feed. She sighed and leaned against the wall of the van.

Meanwhile, Ben walked out of the gift shop, having paid the clerk. As he walked down the hallway, he didn't see Abigail Chase coming from the party, and he didn't notice that she saw him. She looked around when nobody noticed him, and started to follow him wherever he was going. She knew that there was no Paul Brown on the guest list, and she intended to find out why he had decided to crash the gala party. She followed him all the way to the stairs that led outside.

"Where are you, Ben…?" Riley asked again just as Ben came outside.

"Stop talking." Ben ordered him over the headset. Riley jumped up at the sound of his voice and looked to see he was coming closer to them, "Start the van." Riley did as he said, and looked to see Dr. Chase was following his friend.

"Uh, Ben?" He said, lowering himself to try and make himself a bit more inconspicuous. "The uh… Mean Declaration lady is behind you." Letty looked at him in surprise as Ben opened up the back door of the van.

"What?" She said in shock to Riley.

"Hey!" Dr. Chase said, Ben and Letty shared a worried glance as Ben turned to the blonde woman. He shut the door.

"Oh, it's you!" Ben said with a smile, "Hello."

"Mr. Brown, what's going on?" She asked, she looked at the rolled up tube in his hands, "What's that?"

"…Souvenir." Ben replied nervously.

"Really?" Dr. Chase asked doubtfully.

"Ben, stop _chatting_ and get in the damn van." Letty muttered through clenched teeth at her brother.

"Did you enjoy the party?" Ben asked her, trying to make their conversation sound casual.

"Yeah…" She was about to say something more, when the alarm suddenly went off. Ben sighed, lowering his head and putting his hand on his forehead. Letty groaned, her head hitting the wall of the van.

"Oh my God…" Riley muttered, moving down further into his seat.

Dr. Chase looked at Ben in shock, "Oh my God. You did _not_…!"

"This is not what it looks like." Ben tried to explain, but she didn't listen.

"Security!" She shouted, "Security! Over here!" Ben tried to calm her down, but instead, she reached for the Declaration in his hands, "Give me that!"

"It's yours." Ben said, letting her take it and walking away. "Take it." Riley looked at Ben in shock as he went around to the passenger seat of the car as Abigail kept shouting for security while holding the document. "Go!" He slammed the door shut behind him.

"What?" Riley asked, "We can't just let her go!"

"We _can_!" Ben assured, "Go!" An armored van suddenly reared to life on the opposite side of the street, racing towards Abigail, "Wait! No, hold it! Hold it!" The van came to a screeching halt in front of her, and two men jumped out of the van, trying to take the document. "Oh, Bad." The men grabbed the document and tried to yank it out of her hands, but she wouldn't let them, "Bad, bad, _bad_!" Ben got out of the car to go and help her, but the one driving the armored car started shooting at him, and he ducked down behind the hood. Letty let out a shriek as the bullets hit the car, breaking off one of the mirrors and destroying a window.

"Just bring her!" An accented voice ordered to the goons outside, who did as he said and picked up Abigail, dragging her into the car. Then they sped away. Ben quickly got back into the car.

"Go!" He ordered Riley, who took off after the armored car. Letty came up between her brother and his friend.

"Once we catch them, what are we gonna do?" She demanded.

"Working on it." Ben replied, Letty groaned at her brother's answer.

"We're _so_ dead." She said, going into the back of the van to where she had put her bag, looking around for something. She let out an 'oof!' as she hit the side of the van when they took a sharp turn. She quickly went back to her bag and pulled out a small, black case, and opened it up, showing a .38 caliber gun, similar to one used for the police. They took another sharp turn, and Letty fell back against the floor. Once they were going straight again, the road suddenly became violently bumpy, because Riley had followed the armored car onto where a construction site where road work was being done. She bounced around violently as they kept going over the bumps. When the road was a bit smoother, they had begun to skid across the road, and that was when Letty moved up to be next to her brother and Riley again, neither of them noticing the weapon in her hand.

"Skidding, skidding, skidding…!" Riley said nervously as he tried to correct the vehicle's movements. They took another turn off of the construction, and the van's back door opened, showing Abigail hanging onto the door as it swung, and holding onto the Declaration.

"Oh no." Ben said, seeing it.

"Holy lord…" Riley muttered. One of Ian's men from the van pulled out his gun and started shooting at them. Luckily, his bullets only hit the car's hood.

"Move over!" Letty demanded angrily as she turned off the safety on her gun and pushed her brother back into his seat. She stuck her hand out the window and started firing back.

"_What the hell?_!" Riley shouted in fear as he saw her firing it off.

"Letty!" Ben said, grabbing her and pulling her back into the car. Ian stopped the man who was shooting.

"Stop! If she falls, the document falls!" He said, pointing to where Abigail was still hanging onto the open door. Ben pushed his sister back as he got out of the passenger seat and opened up the van's side door, leaning out.

"Get me next to her!" Ben said to Riley, who moved over to the left side of the road to where Abigail was still hanging onto the door. She screamed as the van kept going, Ben reached for her, but stopped when he heard a loud honk and saw a bus was heading right for them.

"Bus, bus, bus, _bus_!" Letty shouted in fear at Riley as she sat in the passenger seat. Riley quicklyswerved to avoid getting hit by the vehicle, then brought it back to the van's side, where Abigail still held on. Ben reached for her, and she reached for him, their hands brushing as the door swung back. Ian reached out and took the document from her arms when she came back.

"Thank you." He said with a smug smirk as the door began to swing out again.

"No!" Abigail shrieked as she went back to Ben. Ian turned back to his men.

"We got it." He said, "Go on." He pointed at the man with the gun, telling them he could shoot at Ben and the others again.

"Abigail!" Ben shouted at her as he held out his hand. She grabbed it, and as the door swung out all the way, he grabbed her waist, "I got you!" He pulled her back into the van just as the man started firing at them. Letty pulled out her own gun and started shooting back at him. "Go!" Riley sped off from them as they shut the door.

"Since when did you have a _gun?_!" Ben demanded of Letty as she pulled her hand back in.

"Since I got a license to carry it." Letty said as she emptied the gun's cartridge and put the safety back on, "You get a lot of benefits from working with the cops."

"Jesus Christ…" Riley muttered.

"You alright?" Ben asked Abigail, ignoring the sudden shock of his sister's gun use.

"No!" Abigail said, "T-Those lunatics! They stole—"

"You're not hurt are you?" Ben asked, interrupting her. Abigail looked at him incredulously.

"You're _all_ lunatics!" She shouted, going into hysterics.

"You hungry?" Ben asked.

"_What?_!" Abigail asked incredulously.

"Are you all right?" Ben asked her again.

"Still a little on edge from being shot at," Riley said, "But I'll be okay, thanks for asking." Letty rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah, well, I'm _not_ all right!" Abigail said, "Those men have the Declaration of Independence!"

"She _lost it?_!" Letty asked incredulously, turning around from the passenger seat to look at her. Ben stood up and pulled a grey tube off of one of the shelves in the van.

"They don't have it." He said, unscrewing the top and letting the plastic-covered Declaration of Independence show itself from the tube, "See? Okay? Now could you please stop shouting?" Abigail swiped for it, but Ben pulled it out of her reach before she could grab it.

"Give me that!" She demanded.

"You're still shouting." Ben said to her disapprovingly, as if he was scolding a child, "And it's really starting to annoy. And you'd do well, Dr. Chase, to a bit more civilized in this instance. Hey, move over, big brother gets shotgun."

"Like hell, you got shotgun." Letty said, she held up the gun, "Because _I_ have shotgun." She smirked smugly at him and Ben backed off.

"Okay, okay." He said, he sat in front of Abigail.

"If this is the real one," Abigail said, pointing to the document in Ben's hands, "What did _they_ get?"

"Souvenir." Ben said as he screwed the top back on the tube protecting the document, "I thought it'd be a good idea to have a duplicate, turned out I was right. I actually had to pay for the souvenir, _and_ the real one, so you owe me thirty five dollars, plus tax." He smirked a little at Abigail when he said this.

Riley smiled, "Genius."

"Who _were_ those men?" Abigail demanded.

"Just the guys we warned you were gonna steal the Declaration." Letty said bluntly.

"And _you_ didn't believe us!" Riley said, a smug tone in his voice.

"We did the only thing we could do, to keep it safe." Ben said. Abigail looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"That's _dumb_! Give me that!" She swiped for the Declaration again and Ben pulled it out of her reach.

"You know something? You're shouting again." Ben said to her.

"Pretty sure she was swearing, too." Riley said.

"I probably deserved that." Ben said with a shrug.

"Yes, you do." Letty agreed. Ben shot her a look, and she became quiet.

"Why do they even want the Declaration of Independence?" Abigail asked.

"We already told you that." Ben said, "For the map on the back." Abigail sighed exhaustedly.

"There is _not_ a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence." She said.

"And there's no chance anyone could steal _this_," Ben said, shaking the red carrier he had placed the grey tube in loudly, "Either." He shook it again, and Abigail gave him a glare, "I level with you 100%, everything I told you was the truth."

"I want that document, Mr. Brown." Abigail said angrily to him.

"Okay, my name's not Brown," Ben said, "It's Gates. I level with you 98%."

"What a minute, did you just say Gates?" Abigail asked. "_Gates_? You're that family with the conspiracy theory about the founding fathers!"

"It's _not_ a conspiracy theory." Ben said.

"Per se." Letty said, Ben shot her a look.

"Don't start again." Letty rolled her eyes.

"Oh, bite me, Ben." She said

"You know what? I take it back." Abigail said, "You're not liars, you're _insane_!"

"Like I haven't heard that before." She said, she looked back at her brother, "Can we just tape her mouth or something until we start running tests?"

"Tests?" Abigail asked.

"No, because that would be wrong." Ben said, "And you can wait until we start running tests on the Declaration."

"You can't _seriously_ intend to chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of a moving van!" Abigail said incredulously.

"We have a clean room environment all set up." Letty said, "EDS suits, a particulate air filtration system, the _whole_ shebang."

"Really?" Abigail asked in surprise.

"We can't go back there." Ben said.

"What?" Riley asked, "Why not?"

"Okay, you know that fake Declaration I paid for?" Ben asked, "Well… I didn't have enough cash on me, so…"

Letty looked at him in shock, "You didn't."

"They took Visa." Ben said, Letty groaned and banged her head against the seat.

"A credit card slip?" Riley exclaimed in shock. "Dude, we're on the _grid_. Do you have— They're gonna have your records from forever! They're gonna have _my_ records from forever!"

"I know, I know," Ben said, trying to get Riley from being hysterical, "It's only a matter of minutes before the FBI shows up at my front door."

"My lab is _doomed_!" Letty lamented, "I'm done! The police will never work with me again. I'm gonna go bankrupt!" She slid down the seat, "Ben, you've ruined my _life_!"

"I have not." Ben said, "You're overreacting."

"Wait, she works with the police?" Abigail asked, pointing at Letty. Her words were ignored as Letty turned her head to look back at her brother.

"_Overreacting?_!" Letty said, "Ben, do you have _any_ idea how hard it is for a member of the Gates family to get a good job in the academic community, much less a _federal_ one? I can't be a forensic expert anymore because no one will come to my lab for committing a felony with my _idiot_ of a brother!" She punched his arm harshly on her emphasized words.

"She's your _sister_?" Abigail asked in shock, again she was ignored.

"Thanks a load, Ben." Letty grunted as she turned back in her seat so she would face the front.

"What do we do?" Riley asked.

Ben sighed, "We need those letters." Abigail looked over at Ben.

"What letters?" She asked him.

"You know what? Get off the road, take a right." Ben directed Riley as they drove by a park.

"What letters?" Abigail asked again.

* * *

><p>"You have the original Silence Dogood letters…" Abigail murmured as she sat in the car with an open door while Ben paced, holding the container for the Declaration of Independence, "Did you steal those, too?"<p>

"They're scans of the originals." Ben said, "Quiet please." Letty rested her head on her crossed arms with her head out the window of the van. Riley leaned next to his car next to the passenger door. They both watched Ben pace back and forth.

"How did you get scans?" Abigail asked, amazed that he was able to get ahold of them.

"I know the person who _has_ the originals." Ben said, getting annoyed with her talking, "Now _shush_."

"Why do you need them?" Abigail asked.

"She really can't shut her mouth, can she?" Ben asked Letty, who shrugged uncaringly. "Tell you what, look," He went over to the blonde and handed her the container for the Declaration, "I will let you hold onto this if you promise to shut _up_. Please!" When Abigail didn't reply, he said, "Thank you." He went back to pacing.

"Ben, you know what you have to do." Riley said.

"I know what to do," Ben said, "I'm just trying to think of anything _else_ we could do."

"Well, not to be a, uh, _noodge_," Riley began, "But you _do_ realize how many people we have after us."

"Riley's right," Letty said, "We probably have our own satellite by now." Ben sighed and kept pacing. Nobody noticed how Abigail was quietly slipping off her heels as she held the Declaration. "I mean, for God's sakes, Ben. It took you all of _two seconds_ to decide to steal the Declaration of Independence!"

"Yeah, but I didn't think I was gonna _personally_ have to tell our dad about it." Ben said sarcastically, taking this moment, Abigail jumped up from the car and started to run, "Hey, not cool!" Ben ran after her and grabbed her waist, "Not! _Cool_!" Riley ran over to help him when she started to struggle.

"Let me _go_!" Abigail shouted, Ben grabbed the Declaration from her and released her.

"Okay, your let go." Ben said, shooing her with his hand, "Go. Shoo."

"I'm not going." Abigail said, grabbing the container, "Not without the Declaration."

"You're not going _with_ the Declaration." Ben said as he grabbed the container back. Abigail glared at him and grabbed the strap of the container as it rested on his shoulder.

"Yes, I am. I'm not letting it out of my sight!" She said, "So I'm going!"

"Wait…" Ben said, "You're not going with _us_ with the Declaration." He pulled away, but she pulled back.

"_Yes_, I _am_." She said firmly.

"_No_, you're _not_." Ben said. They both had a small staring contest, then Abigail sighed.

"Look, if you wanted to leave me behind," She began, "You shouldn't have told me where you were going." Ben tried to come up with a good comeback, but couldn't think of one. Riley and Letty groaned, Letty slamming her head down in her arms, and Riley hitting his head back against the car.

* * *

><p>Letty sat in the backseat, staring right at Abigail, who stared back. Letty looked over at where her brother sat in the passenger seat, "I had first dibs on shotgun."<p>

"I'm older," Ben said, "And I'm holding the Declaration of Independence, so I get shotgun."

"But I actually _have_ a shotgun." Letty pointed out, hoping to scare her brother out of the passenger seat again.

"And what is the likelihood that you will actually use it on me?" Ben asked her, Letty pouted, crossing her arms across her chest stubbornly, "I thought so."

"Jerk." She said.

"Why do you want shotgun so bad, anyway?" Ben asked.

"So I don't have to sit back here with Stuffy McOfficial pants!" Letty said, gesturing to Abigail, who looked a little offended at her words. Riley snorted in laughter, "And the chair is more comfy."

"_And_ you wanna sit by me." Riley said with a sort of arrogant tone.

"Don't bet on it." Letty said with a smirk, "You're cute Riley, but not _that_ cute." Riley let out a mock whine at her words, and she rolled her eyes, "How much longer?"

"Not too much longer." Ben said, "We're coming up on his street." Riley drove a little further until they came up to a typical, two-story home in a suburban area.

"Looks okay." Riley said as he stopped in front of it.

"Park a couple blocks away." Ben said.

"How long do you think we got?" Riley asked.

"We can give it a couple hours," Ben said, undoing his bow tie, "I hope."

"What do we do about her?" Letty asked, pointing her thumb at Abigail.

"I got some duct tape in the back." Riley suggested. Abigail looked at him with wide eyes.

"No, that won't be necessary." Ben said, "She won't be any trouble." He looked at Abigail, "Promise you won't be any trouble."

"I promise." Abigail said, rolling her eyes.

"See?" Ben said with a little smile, "She's curious." Abigail pursed her lips slightly, as if she couldn't believe she was going along with this. Riley parked the car around a corner, and everyone went out. They walked up to the front door of the house, with Ben ringing the doorbell. The door was opened by Patrick Gates, Ben and Letty's white-haired, spectacle wearing father, who was dressed in a plaid robe and slippers. "Dad." Ben greeted with a friendly, but strained smile, as did his father.

"Letty!" Patrick said happily, seeing her, holding out his arms. Letty smiled at him and hugged her father.

"Hi, Daddy." She said as she pulled away. He kissed her cheek.

"How's my favorite daughter?" He asked.

"She's fine." Letty said, stepping aside.

"More than just a favorite _daughter_…" Riley muttered to Abigail, seeing the difference between the greetings he had given his kids. Ben's father looked back at him, then at the other two.

"Where's the party?" He asked.

"Uh, well, uh…" Ben began nervously, "We're in a little bit of trouble." Ben's father looked over at Abigail, then Riley.

"Is she pregnant?" Patrick Gates asked, pointing at Abigail.

"Well, if she is," Ben began quickly, "Are you going to leave the woman carrying your grandchild standing out in the cold?" Abigail looked over herself.

"I look pregnant?" She asked Riley quietly, who shook his head. Patrick stepped aside and let them in. As Ben walked into the house, Patrick took his arm.

"This better not be about that dumb treasure." He whispered warningly as Letty, Riley, and Abigail walked into the living room. Letty looked around the house, seeing all the antique, family decorations that only a member of the Gates family could make look fashionable without making their house look like an antique store. "Well, have a seat," Patrick walked into the room after shutting the door, "Make yourselves comfortable. There's some pizza. Still warm, I think." Riley and Abigail walked into the room, looking around.

"Dad," Ben said, going up to his father, "I need the Silence Dogood letters." Patrick looked at his son incredulously, "Yeah, it's about the treasure." Patrick looked over at Letty, Abigail, and Riley.

"And he dragged you all into this nonsense?" He asked.

"Literally." Abigail said.

"I was bribed." Letty said.

"I volunteered." Riley said with a smile, thinking that would make it better.

"Well, _un_-volunteer," Patrick said, walking over to them, "Before you waste your life."

"Knock it off, Dad." Ben said, coming up next to him.

"Oh, sure, sure. I know," Patrick began, "I'm the family kook! I have a job, a house, health insurance. And I _'brainwashed'_" He made quotes with his fingers, "My own daughter to do the same! How's that going, by the way?"

"Hopefully, doing well." Letty said, not liking how she was awkwardly brought into the conversation. She looked over at Riley as he snuck over to a seat and started eating the pizza.

"Dad, come on." Ben said, not wanting to hear this lecture again.

"At least I had your mother," Patrick said, "For however brief a time. At least I had you, and your sister. What do you have? Him?" He pointed to Riley, who looked up awkwardly, still chewing on a piece of pizza.

"Look, if you just give us the letters," Ben said, "We're gone."

"You disappoint me, Ben." Patrick said. Ben scowled.

"Well maybe that's the real Gates family legacy." Ben said, "Sons who disappoint their fathers."

Letty grimaced, "Ouch." Patrick glared at his son.

"Get out." He ordered, "Take your troubles with you." He looked away from Ben.

"I found the Charlotte." Ben said, getting his father's attention.

"…_The_ Charlotte?" He asked, "You mean she was a ship?"

"Yeah, she was beautiful." Ben said with a smile, "It was amazing, Dad."

"And the treasure?" Patrick asked.

Ben's smile fell, "No, no, but we found another clue that led us here—!"

"Yeah, and that'll lead you to another clue!" Patrick said, "And that's all you'll ever find, is another clue. Don't you get it Ben? I've finally figured it out. The legend says that the treasure was buried to keep it from the British, but what _really_ happened was the legend was _invented_ to keep the British occupied, searching for buried treasure. The treasure is a myth."

Ben sighed, "I refuse to believe that."

"Dad, cut him a break." Letty said, "Look, he found the Charlotte, and after all the _crap _I've been through in the past week, Ben's just about made a believer out of me. Now, neither of us care if you believe us or not, but we tried our… _freaking_ hardest to get this far, and I'll be damned if we stop now because _you're_ too stubborn to help us." Ben looked at his sister in surprise, amazed that she was saying this. She looked over at her brother with a smile, "You dragged me into this Ben, and I'm going to see it through to the end, no matter the consequences." Ben smiled back at his sister. Patrick looked between his two children.

"Well… You can believe what you want." Patrick said, "You're both grown people! What am I doing? Do what you want, Ben. Do what you want." He walked away from him, sticking his hands in his robe pockets and sighing.

"He's probably right." Abigail said, "You don't even know if there _is_ another clue."

"Well, I can think of a way that we can find out." Ben said, "We can find out right now."

* * *

><p><strong>Just a little warning, chapters might not be coming out as quickly as I'd like them to, so... yeah.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

5

Letty came back into the dining room, holding a small plate of lemon slices and a pair of rubber gloves, Ben had brought in some cotton swabs, while Riley had covered the dining room table with a pair of garbage bags so the table wouldn't be ruined by their experimentation. Ben pulled the Declaration out of the container and gently laid it face-down on the table. Patrick peeked in on their work, seeing the old document lying on the table.

"Looks like… animal skin." He said, commenting on the document's appearance, "How old is it?"

"At least two hundred years." Ben said.

"Really?" Patrick asked, "You sure?"

"Pretty darn." Ben replied.

"Now, if this thing's in invisible ink," Riley began, "How do we look at it?"

"Throw it in the oven." Patrick said.

"_No!_" Everyone said at once.

"Self-fading inks can only be brought out with heat." Patrick explained, a little surprised at their reaction.

"Yes, but this…" Abigail began.

"It's very old." Ben said, "Very old, and we can't risk compromising the map." Patrick shrugged.

"You need a _reagent_!" He said pointedly as he walked away from them.

"Daddy, it's really late," Letty said, "Why don't you go and get some sleep?"

"I'm fine!" Patrick called over his shoulder as he went into the kitchen. Letty shook her head at his words.

"Alright, Letty," Ben said, getting her attention, "Since you're the… forensic expert, I think you might be best suited for this particular task." Letty looked a little reluctant, but nodded.

"Give me the lemons." She said, holding out a gloved hand for the plate of lemon slices. She picked one up and held it over the document, prepared to squeeze the juice out onto it. Abigail stopped her before she could, grabbing her wrist.

"You can't do that." She said.

"But we _have_ to do it." Letty pointed out, a little angry that someone had stopped her. It had always been a pet peeve of hers for someone to interrupt a forensic process she was overlooking, including putting lemon juice on the Declaration of Independence.

"Then someone who is _trained_ to handle antique documents is gonna do it." Abigail said firmly.

"Good point." Letty said, "I never took those kinds of courses." She handed the lemon to Abigail, who took it.

"Okay, now, uh," Abigail began, wiping off some sweat from her forehead, "If there _is_ a secret message," She reached for the cotton swabs and pulled one up, "It'll probably be marked by a symbol in the upper, right-hand corner."

"That's right." Ben said, surprised at her knowledge. Abigail rubbed the cotton swab against the lemon and put the fruit slice down. She let out a small, surprised laugh as she looked back at the Declaration.

"I am so getting fired for this." She said.

"I feel you, sister." Letty said in sympathy, knowing her lab was probably closed off by now. Abigail hesitated slightly as she brought the cotton swab closer to the corner of the document, and then began to gently apply the lemon juice to the aged paper. When the corner was completely covered, there was no symbol marking the corner at all. Ben felt his rising hope fall when there was no reaction at all to their work. Patrick looked in from the kitchen at their progress. When he saw their long faces at how the mark didn't show up, he spoke.

"I told you." He said, getting their attention, "You need heat." Letty looked back at Abigail, and they shared each other's gaze for a moment before they both bent down closer to the document. They both breathed on the paper, knowing there was heat in their breath, and for a split second, they saw a small symbol appearing in the corner in brown ink. The symbol of the free masons. Letty, Ben, Riley, and Abigail smiled excitedly at the reaction. Patrick smiled at them, "See?" He turned around and went back to the kitchen.

"We need more juice." Letty said, looking at Abigail.

"We need more heat." Abigail said, looking back at her.

"I'll get Mom's hairdryer." Ben said, heading upstairs.

"And I'll get more lemons." Riley said, dashing over to the kitchen. Letty picked up a cotton swab and covered it in as much lemon juice as she could, as did Abigail as they began applying more lemon juice to the document. Once Riley came back with a bowl of lemons, they instantly went to work slicing them in half so as to get more juice out onto each swab. When Ben came back with the hairdryer, he also came back with a notepad and a pen, saying they'd need to write down whatever was on the back. Once the right side of the document was completely covered (Almost drenched) in lemon juice, Abigail plugged in the hairdryer and turned it on, putting the hot air on wherever she and Letty had put the lemon juice, seeing a series of numbers come up. Ben wrote down each one that he saw as fast as he could.

"That's not a map." Riley said, he squinted his eyes at them, "Is it?"

"More clues." Patrick said, walking into the room, "What a surprise."

"Are those latitudes and longitudes?" Letty asked, curious about how each set of numbers was in threes.

"It's why we need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben said.

"That's the key?" Abigail asked.

"_'The key in Silence, undetected,'_" Ben quoted, he looked up at his father, "Dad, can we have the letters now?"

"Will somebody please explain to me what these magic numbers are?" Riley asked, a little peeved at being put out of the loop.

"It's an Ottendorf cipher." Abigail said, looking at the numbers after she had turned off the hairdryer.

"That's right." Patrick said.

"Oh, okay." Riley said, "What's an Ottendorf cipher?"

"It's just codes." Patrick said dismissively.

"Each of these three numbers," Ben began, gesturing to the disappearing numbers on the document, "Corresponds to a word in a key."

"Usually a random book, or a newspaper article." Abigail said to Riley, further explaining the cipher.

"In this case, the Silence Dogood letters." Ben said, "So, it's like the page number of the key text, the line on the page, and the letter in that line." He pointed to each number on a line he had written down. He looked back up at Patrick, "So, Dad, where are the letters?"

"You know, it's only by sheer… happenstance," Patrick began, "That their grandfather," He gesture to Ben and Letty, "Even _found_ them!"

"Dad," Ben said, trying to get him to stop talking.

"They were in an antique desk," Patrick continued, "In the pressroom of the New England current!"

"Dad," Ben said again.

"That's a newspaper." Patrick finished.

"Dad, where are the letters?" Letty asked, knowing he'd answer her questions more often than he would Ben's.

"…I don't have them." Patrick said.

"What?" Ben asked.

"I don't have them." Patrick repeated. Ben collapsed into his chair, rubbing his face. Riley sat down, as did Letty. Abigail remained standing.

"Where are they?" Ben asked after a moment.

"I donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia." Patrick said.

"Okay, then." Letty said, getting up, "Time to go." Ben followed her example and started to walk out of the room with her.

"I still… can't believe it." Abigail said, looking at the document, "All this time, no one knew what was on the back."

"The back of what?" Patrick asked, coming over to the document.

"Ah!" Riley exclaimed, reaching out to stop him.

"No!" Ben shouted.

"Daddy!" Letty exclaimed. Patrick lifted up the paper, and his jaw dropped farther than it had in years.

"Oh my God…" He breathed in shock, seeing it, "Oh my God. Oh my God!"

"I know." Ben said, trying to get him to calm down.

"What have you done?" Patrick asked, not looking up from the document, "This is—! This is—!"

"I _know_!" Ben said again.

"This is the _Declaration of Independence_!" Patrick exclaimed.

"Yes," Abigail said carefully, reaching out and pulling it from his grasp, "And it's very delicate."

"You stole it!" Patrick gasped, standing up. Riley pointed his finger at Ben like a child would to point out their guilty sibling.

"Dad, I can explain, but I don't have time." Ben said, going over to his father, "It _was_ necessary. You saw the cipher."

"And that will lead to another clue. And _that_ will lead to _another_ clue!" Patrick said, "I wasted _twenty years_ of my _life_! Now you've _destroyed_ yours! And now you've pulled _me_ into this."

"We can't have that." Ben said.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe we just did that." Letty said, shaking her head as she sat in her father's Cadillac. "I <em>cannot<em> believe we just did that." She sat next to Riley, who had leaned back against the seat, eyes closed, trying to sleep as Ben drove the car with Abigail in the passenger seat, and Letty sitting behind Ben.

"Letty…" Ben began, but she ignored him.

"We tied our _father_ to a _chair_!" She said, "Ben, this is going _so_ wrong _so_ fast."

"Well, let's take a look at the bright side, Letty." Ben said, trying to comfort her, "At least it can't get much worse than this."

"Don't say that." Letty snapped, "That phrase is cursed, Ben! Every time someone says that—!" She stopped when her cellphone went off. She fished it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID, seeing that it was her assistant, William. She answered it, "Yeah, William?"

"Letitia, where the hell are you?" William asked urgently, "What the hell is going on? They're going through everything!"

"Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa." Letty said, "William, slow down. What's going on? Who's going through what?"

"The FBI!" William blurted out, "T-They just showed up at the door, asking for you! They had guns, and— and Letitia, they had a _warrant_. They're going through everything we have!"

"What?" Letty asked.

"They're threatening to shut down the lab!" William said, "They said your brother stole the Declaration of Independence, and you _helped_ him! Is it true?"

"Wait, William…" Letty began calmly, hoping to calm him down, "The FBI is there, _right now_?" Ben and Riley looked back at her worriedly.

"Yes!" William said.

"Are they tracing this call?" Letty asked. When she didn't get a response, she got her answer, and she hung up. She turned to her brother and started hitting him, "This!-is!-all!-your!-fault!" She hit him on each word.

"Ow! Wha— Letty! What— Stop! Stop, stop, stop!" Ben grabbed her arms to stop her from hitting him (Which was very difficult while driving), "What are you talking about?"

"My lab is _ruined_ now!" Letty said, "The FBI is going through _everything_! My lab's reputation is _completely_ destroyed! You ruined _everything_!" She punched him again, tears coming to her eyes, "Do you have _any_ idea what you've just _done_, Ben? Do you know what that lab _meant_ to me?" She hit him again.

"Letty, calm down!" Ben said, grabbing her hands again.

"No! I will _not_ calm down!" Letty cried, "That lab was _everything_ to me, Ben! It was proof that I wasn't as crazy as everyone else thought my family was!" Ben looked at her sadly as tears began going down her cheeks. "And it would have _stayed_ that way if you hadn't dragged me into this _crap_!" She hit him again.

"Look, Let— _Letty_!" Ben grabbed her hands again, a bit rougher than last time and made her look right at him as they stopped at a stoplight, "Calm down. I'm sorry, okay?"

"'Sorry' isn't gonna get my lab back." Letty said, yanking her hands from his grasp and turning away from him, crossing her arms. Ben looked at her in a sort of incredulous sadness. He jumped when he heard a horn honking behind him and drove forward through the green light.

After a moment of tense silence, Riley tried to lighten the mood, "Your dad's got a sweet ride." Letty gave him an odd look, and he gave her a small, lopsided smile in return. After a second, she smiled back.

"I think we should change clothes." Ben said randomly, looking over at Abigail, "We look kind of… conspicuous, don't you think?"

"I'd love to go shopping, too, but we have no money." Riley pointed out.

"Here." Letty said, pulling out a small book and handing it to Abigail, "I took this before we left. I figured it'd come in handy, seeing as Dad will tuck a few hundred bucks between the pages." Abigail took the book and smirked at the cover.

"_Common Sense_. How appropriate." She opened up the book and began shaking it, seeing the dollar bills fall out onto her lap.

"When are we gonna get there?" Riley asked, "I'm hungry." Letty rolled her eyes at how much he sounded like a child, "This car smells weird."

"It's an old man's car, Riley." Ben said, "Of course it's gonna smell weird." Letty smirked at her brother's words. As much as she wanted to, it was kind of hard to stay mad at her big brother, as it was for him being mad at her. It was a kind of kinship that they shared ever since they were young, but that's just what happens when you're siblings.

* * *

><p>Letty continually pressed a button as she played a video game on her Nintendo DS that she had brought with her (She had always been a bit of a gamer) as she and Riley waited for the kid that they had paid five bucks to go into the Franklin institute and pick out which letters had the codes they needed from the cipher on the back of the Declaration of Independence. She kept hitting the A button to fire off the weapon her character was carrying so it would wound the Boss she was fighting against.<p>

"Jump! Jump!" Riley said, watching her play.

"I know, I know! Shut up!" Letty said, jumping over an obstacle as her character ran from the boss monster. "See? I know what to do." She never took her eyes off the game as she played. Riley looked up as he saw the young black boy in his school uniform running towards him from across the street from the Franklin Institute, he got his pencil ready to get down the letters he had gotten for them.

"S, S, A, N, D." He said, coming up next to Riley as he handed him the piece of paper he had written the letters down on.

"Okay…" Riley said, looking at the letters and writing them down with the rest of the letters he had written, "And you're sure this is right?" He looked at the kid, who gave him a look as if to say 'You doubt my word-finding skills?' Riley gave him an odd look back, then returned to writing, "Okay… S, S… A…"

"No, N." The boy said, pointing to Riley's lower-case N, which looked vaguely like a lower-case R.

"That _is_ an N." Riley said.

"Doesn't look like an N." The boy said, Riley gave him a dry look, scratched out the word he had been writing, and wrote down the final three letters.

"You know what? Here." Riley said, reaching into his pocket and giving him another piece of paper with the numbers from the cipher, "Last one, okay?" He gave him a fake smile as he pulled out a dollar bill, "One more dollar."

"Thank _you_!" The boy said happily, taking the dollar from Riley's hands. Riley pointed to the institute.

"Go get the last four letters, Chief." He said, the boy ran off towards the institute, "Go get 'em. Come on."

"Yes! High score!" Letty cheered happily as she beat the boss battle. She looked over at the newspaper Riley had been writing on, seeing the words that had been made, "So, what do we got so far?"

"Let me see…" Riley said, picking up the newspaper and starting from where he had first started writing, "Okay… _'The vision to seek the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of pass and…'_ Pass and what…?" Riley looked over at Letty, who shrugged.

"Don't ask me, Ben's the history buff." She said. She looked up as a bus passed in front of them, with an advertisement on it for a local bank, a picture of the liberty bell on it. Riley looked at the bell, then at the words on the newspaper, seeing the words 'Pass and Stow' written on the liberty bell.

"Pass and Stow…" He murmured, "Pass and Stow!" He turned to Letty, "The liberty bell! That's gotta be it!" Letty looked at the liberty bell, then back at Riley. She smiled widely at him.

"Riley, I could kiss you." Letty said, putting her DS away and jumping up, "Come on, we gotta tell Ben." Riley nodded in agreement.

"Wait, are you gonna?" He asked suddenly as they ran off to the Urban Outfitters where Ben and Abigail were getting new clothes.

"You don't want to tell him?" Letty asked.

"No, I mean the kissing thing." Riley said, "You said you could kiss me." Letty rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Men…" She said, still going off.

"What? Come on, I'm serious!" Riley said, running after her.

* * *

><p>Letty and Riley ran up the stairs in the Urban Outfitters, where they saw Ben and Abigail paying for their new clothes at the register.<p>

"Ben!" Letty called getting his attention. He turned around to see the two of them coming towards him.

"Guys! Did you get it?" Ben asked.

"Oh, we got it." Riley said, he looked at the words he had written on the paper, reading them off, "_'The vision to see the treasured past, comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow.'_ Now, '_Pass and Stow_', of course, referring to—"

"The liberty bell." Ben and Abigail said at the same time, cutting Riley off.

"Why do you have to _do_ that?" Riley asked, a little peeved his moment of historical intellect had been ruined.

"Well, John Pass and John Stow cast the bell." Abigail explained.

"Okay." Riley said, still a little peeved, "Well, then, what does the rest of this mean?"

"Wait a minute," Ben said, starting to pace as he usually did, "'_The vision to see the treasured past_' must refer to a way to read the map."

"I thought the cipher was the map?" Letty said confusedly.

"The cipher was a way to _find the way_ to read the map." Ben specified.

"Oh, of course, silly me." Letty said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"And the way to read the map can be found where the _timely shadow_ crosses in front of the liberty bell." Abigail continued as if Letty hadn't spoken.

"…Crosses in front of the _house_ of the liberty bell." Ben corrected, "Independence Hall."

"Alright, so, _timely shadow_…" Abigail said, "It's a specific time!" Ben smiled at her answer, both surprised and impressed that she was getting this as fast as he was.

"What time?" Riley asked.

"What time…" Ben mumbled, thinking of a way they could find out, "What time…" His eyes lit up when it came to him, "Wait, wait," He put his hand on Abigail's shoulder, "You're gonna love this." He went up to the cashier, "Excuse me, can I see one of those hundred dollar bills I paid you with?"

"No." The cashier said, shaking her red head of hair.

"Oh." Ben said dumbly, "Well, uh," He started fiddling with the watch around his wrist, "I have this, uh, diver's watch. It's called a Sub miner, I dive with it. It's actually quite valuable, you can use it as collateral—"

"Whatever." The cashier said, taking the watch and going to the register to get the money out.

"Thank you." Ben said, he turned to Abigail, "On the back of the hundred dollar bill is an etching of Independence Hall based on a—"

"Hello?" The cashier said, holding out the hundred dollar bill to Ben, who took it.

"Thank you." Ben said, "On a painting done in the 1780's, who— and the artist was actually a friend of Benjamin Franklin's." He turned to the cashier when he said this, "It's wonderful!"

"Fascinating…" The cashier responded, rolling her eyes as if she couldn't care less. Ben turned back to Abigail.

"Hold this." He said, giving her the container for the Declaration of Independence. When Abigail took it, Ben still held onto it, giving her a stern look.

"I'm not going anywhere." Abigail assured him with a smile. Ben smiled back, then looked back at the dollar bill.

"And I think…" Ben said, picking up a bottle of water, "If we look at this clock tower," He looked at the back of the dollar bill, "We may find the specific time…" He put the bottle up against his eyes and used it as a magnifying glass of sorts to read the time on the clock.

"What do you see?" Abigail asked, anxious to know what the time was.

"2:22." Ben said, seeing the big hand a little past the four, and the little hand on the two.

"What time is it now?" Abigail asked.

The cashier looked at the watch Ben had given her, "Almost 3." Everyone sighed unhappily.

"We missed it." Abigail said. Riley looked up.

"No we didn't." He said, he looked over at Ben, "We didn't miss it because…" He stopped, looking at Ben's blank stare, and a smile slowly started to form on his face, "You don't know this?" Ben's and Abigail's blank stares continued as they looked at him, "I know something about history that you don't know!"

"I'd be very excited to learn about it, Riley." Ben said, his monotone voice showing that he was a little annoyed by his friend.

"Wait, hold on one second," Riley said, "Let me just…" He took in a deep breath, "Take in this _moment_." Ben sighed and rolled his eyes, "This is cool. Is this how you feel all the time? Because, well— except for _now_ of course, but I mean—"

"_Riley_!" Letty snapped, wanting to know this piece of information as well.

"All _right_!" Riley snapped back, "What I know is that daylight savings time wasn't established until World War One, so if it's 3 PM _now_ that means in 1776, it would be _2_ PM."

"Let's go." Abigail said, walking away from the register.

"Riley, you're a genius." Ben said, grabbing his watch back from the cashier girl as he handed her back the dollar bill.

"I really _could_ kiss you now." Letty said, "And I think I will." Riley, excited by this news, puckered his lips in anticipation of Letty's kiss. He was surprised to see that she only kissed his cheek instead of his lips. It was more of a peck than a kiss, really. As she pulled away, she patted his shoulder, "Good job, Riley." He looked after her incredulously.

"Yeah…" He muttered, getting his stuff off of the register counter and following Ben, Abigail, and Letty. Wanting to keep the moment of his intellect standing strong, Riley asked, "Do you actually know who the first person to _suggest_ daylight savings time was?"

"Benjamin Franklin!" Ben, Abigail, and Letty all said at the same time. Riley stomped his foot in irritation at the knowledge the two history buffs, and the younger sister of a history buff.


	6. Chapter 6

6

The ride to Independence Hall didn't take very long. Letty considered it a big plus that no one recognized Ben as they signed up for the tour. Then again, the news that the Declaration of Independence had been stolen hadn't exactly gone around. They could only assume that the FBI or CIA or whoever was in charge of the investigation was keeping it under wraps so as not to cause any panic.

As they walked with the tour crowd, they went through the building, and eventually came to pass by a stair case. Ben casually turned so he was walking towards the stairs instead of with the tour. Abigail and Letty went after him, and Riley jumped when he realized they were going that way and followed them. They stepped over a rope in front of the stairs that read 'No admittance. Employees only'. They went up the stairs and across the hallway at the top, heading over to the door that led to the bell tower. They passed by various things, which Letty looked at curiously, wondering what all the junk was for. She ignored it as Ben opened the door to the floor underneath the bell in the tower and went up. Abigail went after him, and Letty after her. Riley was the last one to come up. He looked at the bell strangely.

"What bell is this?" He asked, thinking that the liberty bell was supposed to be there.

"It's the Centennial Bell." Ben said, ducking down so he wouldn't hit it as he walked around it, "It replaced the liberty bell in 1876." Abigail and Letty followed him over to where the shadow of Independence Hall was being cast. Ben looked at his watch, seeing the time read 3:22, and he looked at the shadow, seeing that it pointed to a specific brick in the wall.

"There it is." Letty said with a smile.

"Alright," Ben said, he looked over at Letty and Abigail, "I'm gonna go down there and get it, you meet me in the signing room." The two girls nodded and headed down the stairs after Ben just as Riley came up. He looked down at the shadow, then at the watch on his wrist and smiled.

"3:22. My idea." He said, and then he quickly followed Letty and Abigail down the stairs. Ben headed off, going through a door on the side of the tower as they went back and joined the tour group at the signing room, talking about things Letty didn't care to know about at the time. Abigail adjusted the strap for the container of the Declaration of Independence as they pretended to listen to the tour guide talk about how history was made in the signing room. Letty looked among the crowd, and felt her stomach drop when she recognized someone.

"Oh no…" She muttered, making Riley and Abigail look over at her as she went to hide behind Riley, "Hide me!"

"What? What is it?" Riley asked urgently.

"Shh!" Letty hissed, "There's someone I know here!"

"Who?" Riley asked, looking at the crowd.

"He's a cop!" Letty hissed again, she pointed at a head of blonde hair, "That's Officer Pruitt, I've worked with him on a million different cases in New York."

"What's he doing in Philadelphia?" Abigail asked, looking at her.

"His daughter's going to college here." Letty said, "Now, _shh!_ I'm not here!" She shrunk behind Riley. After a minute, the tour guide announced that they were going to move outside to see the liberty bell and everyone began to follow out. Letty hid behind Riley, peeking out to see Officer Pruitt following the crowd. His eyes momentarily glanced at Letty, who instantly ducked behind Riley, and he did a double take.

"Letitia?" He asked, going over to where she was hiding, "Letitia Gates? Is that you?" Finding no way out of this, Letty came out from behind Riley, putting on her best smile for the police officer.

"Hey Danny." She said, she reached out and shared a quick embrace with the man. Riley frowned at their familiarity with each other (because he had never gotten to hug Letty like that) but said nothing. "How are you?"

"I'm good, I'm good." Danny said, pulling away, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just… visiting some family." Letty lied smoothly, "My dad lives here."

"Oh yeah?" Danny asked, "Go figure. I'm visiting my daughter."

"Yeah? How is she?" Letty asked, making casual conversation with the man so he wouldn't suspect anything.

"She's doing good, although, she's starting to flunk her biology classes." Danny said.

"Oh, I can't say I blame her," Letty said, "Biology can be difficult, especially when you're dissecting something like, say, a cat."

"You dissected cats?" Riley asked, suddenly getting the attention of the police man.

"Who's this?" He asked, pointing at Riley and Abigail.

"Oh… this is…" Letty began nervously, "Um… This is my boyfriend, Jack," Letty put her arm around Riley's shoulders, "And my, uh, cousin Tracy." She put her other arm around Abigail's shoulders, "My family."

"Oh." Danny said, he held his hand to both of them, "Nice to meet you."

"Hi." Riley said, shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you, too." Abigail said, doing the same.

"You know, Letitia," Danny began, "I heard the strangest thing the other day. Your lab was searched by the FBI?"

"What?" Letty asked, pretending to be surprised, "Since when? What did that William do? I swear to God, that boy wouldn't even be my assistant if I didn't need the extra hands. When I get back, I'm gonna chew him out!" Danny grinned, letting a small chuckle out.

"Yeah, I guess so." He said, "I'd hate to work for you, though. Will says you're one hell of a slave driver." Letty smirked.

"Thanks for noticing." She said, Danny laughed and patted her on the shoulder.

"I'll see you around." He said, he turned and walked away. Letty let out a sigh of relief once he was gone and looked back to Riley and Abigail.

"That was _way_ too close." She said.

"Yeah, no kidding." Riley agreed, "And why'd you name me Jack?"

"What's wrong with Jack?" Letty asked.

"I don't like Jack." Riley said, "It's too ordinary."

"Would _Bill_ be better?" Letty asked with a grin, Riley frowned in mock anger.

"Next time make me like… Xavier, or… Some Gaelic name or something." Riley said, Letty laughed.

"How about you come up with your own freaky name next time?" She asked, she looked over at the crowd as she noticed Ben coming towards them, and they walked over to him, "Hey, what'd you get?"

"I found this." Ben said, pulling out a pair of old glasses with multicolored lenses attached to each spectacle. "Some kind of ocular device." He looked up at them, "The vision to see the treasured past?" Riley took the glasses from Ben as he grabbed the Declaration of Independence container, "Let me take this." He went over to the window to make sure no one was coming. Riley inspected the glasses, looking over at Letty.

"They're, like, early American X-ray specs." He said, looking through the glasses at Letty's chest. She scowled in mock-anger and took the glasses from him, looking through the different colored lenses with interest.

"Benjamin Franklin invented something like these." Abigail said as Ben rested the container for the Declaration of Independence on the windowsill.

"Uh, I think he invented these." Ben said, coming over to them with the Declaration still in its plastic wrapping.

"So, what do we do with them?" Letty asked, inspecting the glasses.

"We _look_ through it." Ben said, Letty shrugged and looked through the glasses at her brother's head as Ben pulled the plastic wrapping off the Declaration and handing it to Abigail, who took one end of the document in the plastic wrap.

"Here, help me." Abigail said, Riley came over next to her and held it as Ben and Letty carefully unrolled the document.

"Careful." Ben whispered, not wanting them to get caught. Ben paused when he got to the bottom of the document with all the signatures showing. He let out a small chuckle in disbelief as he realized something. Letty looked at him curiously through the glasses she had put on.

"What?" She asked him.

"It's just that," Ben began, "The last time this was here… It was being signed." Letty and Abigail smiled at Ben, knowing how this little treasure hunt was really something to him.

"Ben, there's another tour coming." Riley said, completely uncaring to Ben's happiness in the situation.

"Turn it over." Ben said, getting back to business as they flipped the paper over with as much care as they could manage. Letty looked at the document in surprise as she saw something pop up from the back, and gasped in surprise.

"Oh, wow." She said, looking at it. Ben looked over at his sister.

"What do you see?" Abigail asked, curious as to what other secrets lay on the back of the document. Letty couldn't say anything, she was too amazed by the intricate design on the back.

"What is it?" Riley asked excitedly, "Is it a treasure map?"

"It says… _'Heere at the wall.'_" Letty said, she reached up and took the spectacles off, she held the glasses out and Ben took them, looking at the document.

"Spelled with two E's." Ben mused, he held the glasses out, "Take a look." Riley reached for them, but Abigail grabbed them before he could look and he scowled angrily at her.

"Wow." Abigail said, seeing the words on the back.

"Why can't they just say 'Go to this place, here's the treasure. Spend wisely'?" Riley groaned, getting tired of all these clues. Ben looked up through the window and saw a familiar face coming to Independence hall.

"Oh, no." He said. Riley, Letty, and Abigail looked up, and saw Ian and some of his goons coming by. Everyone repeated Ben's words as they saw them. Riley ran towards the window.

"How'd they find us?" Letty asked as she helped her brother to roll up the document.

"Ian has nearly unlimited resources." Ben explained, "_And_ he's smart."

"I don't think we can get out of here without being spotted." Abigail said.

"Well, we don't want them to have the Declaration, or the glasses," Ben said, "But we _especially_ don't want them to have them both together."

"So, what do we do?" Riley asked, pulling away from the window and going over to Ben.

"We separate the lock from the key." Ben said, he turned to Abigail, "We're splitting up."

"Good idea." Abigail said, turning in the direction Ben walked as he went over to the container and the grey tube, but keeping them separate.

"Really?" Riley asked, surprised that Ben would suggest it.

"I'll take this." Ben said, holding the red container, "And those." He took the glasses from Abigail, "You keep that." He pointed to the document in his sister's hands, "You meet me at the car, and call me if you have any problems. Come on, Abigail." She followed him as they began to walk out of the room.

"Like, if we get caught and killed?" Riley asked as the two of them walked away. Ben turned back to his friend.

"Yeah, that would be a big problem." He said, "Take care of her."

"I will." Letty and Riley said at the same time. They gave each other strange looks, but said nothing. Letty wrapped the document in plastic and put it in the grey tube. They walked out a few minutes after Ben and Abigail, who already had two men tailing them.

"Let's go this way." Letty said, going off to the side instead of going straight like Ben and Abigail had. Riley quickly followed her as they went away from the building. They moved into a busy street, planning to lose them in the crowd. Which didn't work as well as they hoped. They soon heard the sound of two voices shouting at people to get out of the way. Letty looked back and recognized them as men from the armored truck that she had shot at, "Riley!" She grabbed his arm and he looked back to see the two men. When they realized that they had been caught, they ran for the two of them and they dashed off.

"Time to run…!" Riley said, grabbing Letty's arm as they ran through the crowd of people. The men shouted even more at the people in their way and headed down a street corner. Letty looked up as they passed by a supermarket and skidded to a stop.

"In here!" She told Riley as she opened the door and dashed inside, Riley followed her, even though he did stumble a bit. They ran in, passing by various spots for meat and fruit. "Follow me!" Letty shouted as she went left down one hallway, and Riley went right down the other. He looked to see her running, and went after her, stopped when he saw the two men, and dashed down the opposite way, thinking he could lose them before he found Letty.

Meanwhile, Letty dashed down the hall, and looked over her shoulder to see the one man with the bald head following her. Thinking quickly, she jumped over a counter at a small, in-store deli section and hid behind the display for the meat. She panted as she held the Declaration close.

"If you're not a steak, you don't belong here." She looked up to see a large black woman looking down at her as she scribbled something down on a clipboard.

"I'm just trying to hide from my ex-boyfriend." Letty lied easily. The woman looked up to see the man looking around.

"Who? Baldie?" Letty nodded in confirmation. The woman gave the man a strange stare, then looked back at her in sympathy, "Honey, you stay as long as you like." Letty sighed in relief.

"Thank you." She panted out. The woman looked up as the man approached the counter.

"You want something?" She asked him, Letty looked through the small window at the man to see he was carrying a gun. She mentally cursed at herself for leaving her own gun in the car. "Do you want something?" The man looked at the woman.

"Shut up." He said, he walked away from her and once he was gone, the woman looked back down at Letty.

"I see why you left him." She said, Letty nodded.

"Thanks for letting me hide here." She said, she jumped out from behind the corner and dashed down around the corner. She crouched down as she came to a stand selling flowers and looked around for him or the other man he had come in with. She was so preoccupied with that, she didn't notice how someone's hand was reaching for her and tapped her shoulder. She jumped and let out a small shriek, and Riley quickly shushed her. "Riley! You scared the _hell_ out of me! Where _were_ you?"

"Hiding!" Riley hissed, as if it was obvious. He grabbed her hand, "Come on! Let's go!" He pulled her up and they ran for the door. "Where do we go?"

"The car!" Letty said, they had parked near city hall so as to avoid suspicion from police near Independence hall. As they crossed the street, they stopped as a car almost hit them. The driver honked their horn angrily at them and they yelled out an apology as they ran past it. They heard more car horns honking as the men chasing them went down the same street. They ran through the center of the yard outside the building and through the breezeway. They both looked over their shoulder at the same time, and when they turned back to where they were running, Riley ran into a crowd of people that stopped him as Letty kept going. She looked back at him, wanting to stop and go and get him, but since she wasn't watching where she was going and crashed with a man on a bicycle, falling to the ground, the document shooting out from her hand. She looked up at it worriedly when she saw it in the crosswalk of the street. A car ran over it without any care at all, and she ran for it just as Riley got through the crowd. Just as Letty bent down to pick it up, a car horn honked loudly, and she looked to see a semi heading straight for her.

Riley grabbed her and pulled her back so she wouldn't get run over and they fell back onto the pavement. When the truck passed by, they looked to see if the document was okay, and it seemed it was. Two feet suddenly came up to it, and someone's hand picked it up. Letty and Riley looked to see Ian was the one holding the document. He unscrewed the container and looked to see it was the Declaration of Independence. He grinned at them, and they glared back. The sound of two voices shouting at them got their attention and Riley jumped up, pulling Letty with him. He held her hand as they ran away from the two.

"No! Leave them!" Ian ordered the two, he tapped the document's container against his neck with a smug grin on his face, "We got it."

* * *

><p>Letty and Riley ran around a corner, they looked back to see they weren't being followed anymore, and they relaxed slightly. Letty leaned back against the building's wall, as did Riley and they both caught their breath.<p>

"Damn!" Letty cursed, banging her hand against the wall, "Damn it!"

"Letty, it's okay." Riley said, trying to comfort her.

"No, Riley it's _not_ okay!" Letty growled at him, "We lost the _document_…! Oh, God…" She slid down the wall, her knees up and she rested her elbows against them as she held her head in her hands, "I can't believe this. I get dragged into this whole stupid treasure hunt, and just when I get into it, I can't even hang onto the freaking _map_!" She banged her hands against her knees, then went back to holding her head in her hands. She sighed to herself. Riley looked down at her in sympathy and slid down the wall to sit beside her.

"It's okay, Letty." He comforted, putting his hand on her back and rubbing it. Letty sighed again and looked up at the sky as Riley pulled her in closer, "It's okay. Look, we have the clue, and that's going to lead us to wherever the treasure is. We'll be fine." Letty looked over at him. "Now, look." Riley reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone, "I have Ben on speed dial, do you want to call him, or should I?" Letty looked at the phone, then took it from his grasp.

"I'll do it…" She said, dialing her brother's number, "It's my fault we lost it, anyhow." She put the phone to her ear as it began to ring. After the second ring, Ben answered.

"What?" He sounded out of breath.

"We lost it." Letty said.

"What?" Ben said.

"We lost the Declaration. Ian took it." Letty said. She heard the phone hiss slightly from Ben moving it, and she thought for a moment, she heard him say "Damn!"

"What is it?" Abigail asked in the background.

"They lost it." Ben said to her, Letty felt just a bit guiltier than she did before. "Yeah, uh, okay. You're alright? You're both alright?"

"Yeah, we're okay." Letty said, looking over at Riley, "Ben, I'm so sorry."

"We'll be fine." Ben said, "Meet me at the car." Letty nodded and hung up the phone, handing it back to Riley.

"He said to meet him at the car." She said, she pushed herself up and Riley followed her. "He sounded mad."

"I'm sure he's not." Riley comforted, he put his arm around her shoulders and she stayed there, not making any protest or movement to leave his arms. They stayed that way as they walked back to the car. Tentatively, Riley leaned down once and kissed the top of her head, and Letty let a small smile come onto her face.

"You know, you saved my life back there." Letty said. Riley shrugged.

"_Ah_… it was… Meh." He said, Letty smiled, and stopped walking, making him stop. She turned to face him.

"Thank you." She said, she took his face in both of her hands and leaned up, softly kissing his lips. She giggled when she pulled away and saw the shocked/happy look on his face. He shook his head to get rid of the look and turned back to her.

"You are… _so_ welcome." He said, Letty giggled again and he cautiously took her hand in his, "Hey, Letty… After all this is over," Letty looked up at him, "You wanna go for pizza or something?"

"Like… on a date?" Letty asked, Riley nodded and she smiled, "I'd love to." Riley smiled.

"Cool." They turned the corner to go down the street that would lead them to the car, and were surprised when they saw Ben and Abigail getting arrested. Ben looked over at them, silently telling them to get out of there before they got caught. They turned around, keeping out of sight from the FBI at the car, and ran off. Letty gave her brother a pained look, but he only nodded his head once, and she followed Riley around the corner and away from the federal agents.

* * *

><p>Letty paced incessantly in front of Riley, who sat on a park bench as they tried to figure out what to do next. Letty's hands continuously fidgeted. She was linking her fingers together, then bringing them apart, she was running her hands through her long hair, which she had brought out of her usual ponytail for this very reason, she was lightly clapping her hands to a beat in her head, which was something she used to keep ahold of her train of thought when she was trying to figure something out.<p>

Riley sat on the bench, his head in his hands, also trying to figure out what they should do. Ben and Abigail were the history masters. Without them, there was a good chance they would never find the treasure, and there was a good chance they could go to jail along with them if the FBI manage to worm it out of them.

"What are we going to do?" Letty asked as she paced back and forth, her hands twirling a lock of hair around her finger again and again.

"I don't know." Riley said, not looking up from where he was holding his head. Letty took in a deep breath as she tried to think. What could they do?

These were the options she had come up with so far:

1. Find where Ben and Abigail are being held and break them out, but if they did that, they would be caught up in the entire plan, and they would go to jail.

2. Simply try to find the treasure without them, but come across a fatal flaw while trying to get to it, get caught, and go to jail.

3. Turn themselves in, give up on the treasure, and go to jail.

All in all, none of these options ended very well.

Letty sighed and gripped at the roots of her brown hair. If they didn't do any of these options at all, she would be leaving her big brother and Abigail to rot in prison and be sentenced to life in prison in a courtroom (Something she highly doubted, seeing as the ultimate penalty for grand larceny was 25 years…). They had to do _something_! And the worst part of it all is that, while all of this is going on, Ian and his goons are getting closer and closer to the treasure the Gates family deserves to find—

Letty stopped, suddenly remembering Ian and his men. She looked over at Riley, who was still in the same position she had last seen him in.

"Riley, do you know Ian's number?" She asked him. Riley looked up from his hands and at her face, seeing how serious she was.

"Excuse me?" He asked, wondering if he had heard her wrong.

"Ian's number, do you know it?" She asked him.

"Uh… Yeah." Riley asked, a little unsure, "Why?"

"Because I have this ridiculously stupid idea that normally I would never follow through with, but at this point we don't have any other options." Letty said, explaining it quickly, "So, do you have his number, or don't you?"


	7. Chapter 7

7

Agent Sadusky looked at where Ben and Abigail were chained to his desk from over his coffee mug, and then put it down on the table in front of him. He stared at the two for a long minute, then said, "That's some story."

"Well, that's the same story I tried to tell you guys before the Declaration was stolen." Ben said.

"By you." Agent Sadusky said.

"No, by Ian." Ben specified, "I stole it to stop him. I did it _alone_. Dr. Chase was not involved." Abigail looked over at Ben when he mentioned her name again, "And Ian still ended up with the Declaration of Independence."

"Because of you." Agent Sadusky said, Ben shot him a look, tempted to say that it was his sister, but he didn't want her to get involved in this, "So, here's your options: Door number one, you go to prison for a very long time and Dr. Chase goes to jail for a shorter time for not telling anyone you had the Declaration with you after you stole it. Door number two, we are going to get back the Declaration of Independence, you both help us find it, and you _still_ go to prison for a very long time. But you feel better inside."

"…Is there a door that, maybe, _doesn't_ lead to prison?" Abigail asked. Agent Sadusky laughed.

"Someone's gotta go to prison, Dr. Chase." He said.

"Yeah…" Ben muttered, looking away from the FBI agent as he picked up the spectacles they had gotten from him when they frisked Ben.

"So, what are these for?" He asked, looking at them curiously.

"It's a way to read the map." Ben said.

"Right." Agent Sadusky said, "Knights Templar, Free Masons, invisible treasure map." He put the glasses down on his desk in front of the arrest warrant for Ben, playing boredly with the adjustable lenses on the spectacles. "So what'd it say?"

"It said _'Heere at the wall.'_" Abigail said, "Nothing else."

"Just another clue." Ben said, his eyes looked curiously at the lenses when he saw the effect they had on the spectacles vision as the lenses were lifted up and showed the paper for the arrest warrant in different colors.

"Looks like Ian Howe could be a false identity." One agent said to Sadusky.

"Follow up on ATF and INS." Sadusky ordered him.

"Let's run a trace on it." The agent beside the one who had spoken up said. Ben still stared at the glasses, watching as the paper changed through the lenses' vision.

"There's more to it…" He whispered. He jumped slightly when his cellphone began to go off. All the FBI agents around Sadsuky's desk prepared to have the call traced on the cellphone. When Sadusky's agent said they were ready, he handed the cellphone to Ben, who took it with a glare at the agent. "Yes?"

"Hello, Ben." Ian greeted on the other line, "How are you?"

"…I'm chained to a desk." Ben replied dryly.

"So, you're here then." Ian said, in more of a statement form than a question, "I want you and that good lady friend of yours to meet me on the flight deck of the USS Intrepid. You know where that is?"

"New York." Ben said, remembering how Letty had talked about it with him once over the phone.

"Meet me there at ten o' clock tomorrow morning." Ian ordered, "And bring those glasses you found at Independence Hall." Ben looked at the phone in surprise, "Yeah, I know about the glasses. We can take a look at the Declaration, and then you can be on your way."

"And I'm supposed to believe that?" Ben asked.

"I told you from the start, I only wanted to borrow it." Ian said, "You can have it, and the glasses. I'll even throw in the pipe from The Charlotte."

Ben looked up at Agent Sadusky, who nodded after listening in on the call. "We'll be there."

"And tell the FBI agents listening in on this call," Ian continued, "If they want the Declaration back, and not just a box of confetti, then you come alone." He hung up the phone, and Ben handed it back to Agent Sadusky.

"Did you get it?" Sadusky asked one of his agents.

"Yeah, the call came from a payphone in New York." The man said, examining the results on his computer.

"Then to New York we go." Sadusky said.

"Wait, Ian said he wanted us alone." Ben said, Agent Sadusky looked back at him.

"And as far as he knows, you _will_ be." He replied.

* * *

><p>Ben and Abigail walked through the crowd of people on the USS Intrepid. They had both been given small microphones and earwigs that were only visible if you looked really, <em>really<em> closely. They could hear Sadusky talking to the other agents and members of the NYPD over the audio.

"Gates and Chase are on the flight deck." One agent said.

"Eyes on them." Sadusky ordered, "Do not lose sight of primary mark."

"Roger that." The agent said, "We are clear with NYPD."

"I have a visual." Another agent said. Ben and Abigail looked around, searching for the faces in the crowd that didn't seem to be there.

"Gates, Chase, stay with the program." Sadusky said. Ben looked at a group of boy scouts as they passed by.

"I hope your agents are all under four feet tall and wearing little scarves." Ben said, watching as they passed him, "Otherwise, Ian's gonna know they're here."

"As soon as he shows you the Declaration, we'll move in." Sadusky said, "Don't try anything. Just let us handle it."

"You know, Agent Sadusky," Ben began, "Something I noticed about fishing, it never works out so well for the bait."

"Sir, we got some traffic incoming," A woman said to Sadusky as a helicopter flew closer to the ship, "Looks like a sight-seeing helicopter."

"Unit 2, get an eyeball on that chopper." Sadusky ordered, "If that's not Mr. Howe, I wanna know who it is."

"I got him," A man said, "He's coming from the north."

"Gates? Chase?" Sadusky asked over their earpieces, "You with me?"

"Well, we're definitely not against you, if that's what you're asking." Abigail said. They walked around a little longer, looking for Ian. They didn't see the man behind the vending stand twenty feet away, taking a device and aiming it at Ben's head, a second man aiming for Abigail's. They pulled the trigger, knowing it would cause interference on their microphones that the FBI had planted on them.

"Hello, Ben." A man greeted, and the two turned around to see a bald man in sunglasses holding a video camera, looking away from them. "Thomas Edison needed one way to make a light bulb. Sound familiar?" Ben turned to the man incredulously, amazed that he knew that particular statement. Everyone shouted as the sightseeing helicopter suddenly came in way too close to the civilians, making some of them run, and the wind from the continuously moving propeller above it caused the FBI agents to be temporarily blinded by the dirt that was being sent up from the ground. "Got you to start at an automation point behind the M-16!" The man shouted over the wind, "Now, here's what you do!"

Meanwhile, in the FBI's van, they couldn't hear a word that was being said over the microphone.

"Gates?" Agent Sadusky said, asking for a response, "Chase? What's going on down there?"

The FBI chopper went behind the helicopter and said over a loud speaker, "Air force Delta, you are in a controlled airspace. Vacate immediately." The helicopter flew away and the two men holding the interference devices turned them off and went away. The bald man with the camera backed off as well, disappearing into the crowd.

"Who's got them? Who's got Gates?" Agent Sadusky asked of his agents once the helicopter was gone. "Did they speak to anybody?"

"Target is moving." The agent in the helicopter said, watching Ben and Abigail walk away from the crowds to another part of the ship.

"They're heading towards the stern." Another agent said, watching them from the flight deck.

"We got them, they're coming this way." Another said.

"Anyone got info on our friend, Ian Howe?" Sadusky asked.

"Oh, Ian Howe is not at the stern, sir." An agent said.

"Then why are they heading there?" Sadusky asked.

Ben and Abigail headed over to a part of the deck where pay-telescopes were put on it.

"They're at the observation deck." An agent said, watching as Abigail gripped the railing of the deck, her shoulders shaking and Ben paced back and forth.

"Sadusky," Ben said, addressing the head agent, "We're still not against you. But we found door number three, and we're taking it." He looked over at Abigail, and she nodded as he came up next to her on the railing.

"What's he talking about?" The agent next to Sadusky in the van asked. With a horrible shock, Sadusky realized they were about to make a break for it.

"Move in! Move in!" He ordered quickly of his agents, "Move in! Move in on Gates and Chase!" The agents started running towards them as they went over the railing and into the water of the Hudson River below. The agents ran to the railing, seeing the splash they had made. "Divers are a go. Snipers, move in. Action Zebra. Pursue at all risk. I repeat, pursue at all risk."

"You first." An agent said to the other as they stood at the railing. Sadusky leaned back in his chair.

"Holy mackerel…" He muttered, "They set us up."

Underneath the water's surface, Ben and Abigail looked around the murky water and saw a man with an underwater motor and an oxygen tank come up to them. He gave the breather to Abigail first, who took two deep breaths, then passed it to Ben, who did the same. The man handed a second breather to Abigail and she gladly took it as they grabbed onto the motor and shot off, away from the USS Intrepid, and the boat for the FBI that was now on the water. The helicopter made ripples on the surface of the river as it flew closer.

"Agent Dawes, do you have a visual?" Sadusky asked, "Do you see Gates in the water?"

"Sir, it's the Hudson." She said, "Nothing is visible." Sadusky ground his teeth.

"Smart fish." He muttered, glaring at the screen that read the audio levels for Ben and Abigail's microphones.

* * *

><p>After about five minutes of constant swimming, Ben and Abigail were brought to the surface. They swam over to a ladder that led up somewhere they didn't know of. Ben went first, and when he reached the top of the ladder, a shadow was cast over him, and he saw the same bald man from before waiting for him at the top.<p>

"Hello, Ben." He said, "Welcome to New Jersey." He offered his hand and Ben took it, the man did the same with Abigail as she came up. The man started walking away and they followed him all the way over to a car where another man popped the trunk open and pulled out two sets of outfits.

"What'd you do with Letty?" Ben demanded of them once they were there.

"Hope these fit." A man said, tossing them the outfits. Ben held onto his as he followed the bald man. "We have to get you two out of here."

"I said, what'd you do with my _sister_?" Ben asked again, "She's the only one who could have told you that line about Edison." _Besides Riley_, his mind added, but at the moment, he was just worried about his baby sister.

"Did you bring the glasses?" The man asked, ignoring Ben's questions.

"I don't know." Ben said testily, "Tell me what's happening here." He was getting tired of this man avoiding his questions.

"Ask your sister." The man said to him, "She's the one calling all the shots now." He opened up the driver side door and got in, "She won't shut up." Ben let out a small chuckle at his words, knowing that when Letty didn't get her way as a child, she would throw a temper tantrum. Her adult equivalent? Yelling at the guy in charge until _she_ was in charge. Ben and Abigail got into the back seat of the car as it started up and they drove off into the streets.

* * *

><p>As they drove through the streets, the bald man's cellphone went off and he answered it, "Yeah, hello?" After a moment, he handed the phone to Ben, "It's for you." Ben took the phone from him and put it to his ear between him and Abigail so she could hear what was going on.<p>

"Hello?" Ben asked.

"Ben, are you okay?" Letty's voice asked on the other line, "The FBI didn't torture you for information about the Declaration, did they? You and Abigail are okay, right?" Ben smiled at her concern.

"Letty, we're fine." He assured, "Just a little wet."

"Oh, good." Letty sighed in relief.

"So, what, you're working with Ian now?" Ben asked.

"Well, turns out, helping someone escape the custody of the FBI is a criminal offense." Letty said, "And Ian's the only criminal we knew, so we called him up and made a deal."

"And you're alright, right?" Ben asked, "I mean, they didn't hurt you or anything?"

"Yeah, we're both okay." Letty said, looking over at Riley as they sat in the internet café, "Riley's right here, doing something clever with a computer." She walked over to him and put the phone to his ear.

"Hey," Riley greeted, keeping his eyes on the computer monitor, "I'm tracking you through the GPS in Shaw's phone. They take a turn anywhere we don't want, we'll know it, so—" He was cut off as Letty pulled the phone away.

"If Ian tries to double-cross us," She said, "We can contact the FBI and tell them where you are, and where to find Ian."

"And where's that?" Ben asked. Letty looked out the window of the internet café.

"Right across the street from where we are." She said, "At the intersection of Wall street and Broadway." Ben smiled.

"You figured out the clue." He said, a touch of pride in his voice.

"Wasn't that hard." She said, "_Heere at the wall_, Wall street and Broadway." Letty grinned, "I told you all that history crap you drilled into my brain got stuck somewhere." Letty looked out the window where she saw Ian pacing across the street from them, the Declaration in his hands, "Ben there _is_ a catch. The only way we got this far was because we made Ian believe that he could have the treasure."

"He's here." Riley said, watching as the little red dot on his screen came onto the street near the café. They both went to the window and watched as the car pulled up to the street Ian was on, "Here we go."

Ben and Abigail stepped out of the car, looking around them.

"Ben, Dr. Chase," Ian called, getting their attention, "You two alright? A jump like that could kill a man."

"No, it was _great_." Abigail said, "You should try it sometime." Ian gave her a false smile.

"For your sake, I'm going to take that as a joke." He said laughing, Abigail glared at him. "The Declaration of Independence," He put a large, thin cylinder on top of the car they had come in, "And the meerschaum pipe. All yours." He turned to Ben.

"That's it?" Ben asked, Ian nodded.

"That's it." He said, "Now, where is it? Where's my treasure?"

"It's right here." Ben said, gesturing around them, "The map said _Heere at the wall_, spelled with two E's. Wall Street follows the path of an actual wall that the original Dutch settlers built as a defense to keep the British out. The main gate was located at a street called DeHeere, also two E's. Later, De Heere Street was renamed Broadway after the British got in. So,_ Heere at the wall_," He turned and gestured to the street sign near them, "Broadway, Wall street." Putting on a cheesy British accent, Ben said, "Cheerio." And put his hand on the pipe and Abigail grabbed the Declaration of Independence. They turned to walk away, but Ian's voice stopped them.

"Just a moment, Ben." Ian said, they both looked back at him.

"Ian, if you break our deal, the FBI is going to be only a few minutes behind you." Abigail said, "You might be able to get away, you might not, but they will still come after you." Ian looked at the two of them and stepped up.

"Is that all the map said?" He asked.

"Every word." Ben lied. Ian stared at Ben's face for a second longer, then smirked.

"Oh, Ben," He said, "You know the key to running a convincing bluff. But every once in a while, you've got to be holding all the cards." He looked over at a black sedan where a man stood in front of the door. Ian nodded at him, and the man nodded back. He opened the back door, and Patrick Gates looked out through the door, his hands bound in front of him with duct tape.

"Dad…" Ben murmured, knowing his father could see him. The man shut the door and Ian looked back at Ben.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" He asked, Ben looked back at him, glaring slightly.

"Trinity church." Ben said, "We have to go inside trinity church." Ian looked around, seeing flags for the trinity church hanging on the lampposts surrounding them.

"Good." He said, nodding in approval, "Excellent." He looked back at Ben, "Why don't you ask Letitia and Riley to join us?" He looked around them, "I'm sure they're around here somewhere."

* * *

><p>Ben walked next to Ian as his father and Abigail followed behind them. Ben looked back at his father.<p>

"Are you alright?" He asked. Patrick looked back at his son.

"What do you think?" He asked testily, "I'm a hostage!" A man grabbed his arm, and another man grabbed Abigail's.

"Sit down." He ordered, pushing them towards one of the pews in the church, when they didn't comply, he pushed them harder, "Sit down." They did as he said and walked into the pew, getting a seat.

"Let them go, Ian." Ben said.

"Help me find the treasure." Ian replied.

"No, _now_!" Ben snapped, he reached into his coat pocket, "Or you can figure out the clues for yourself." He took out the glasses and handed them to Ian. "Good luck." Ian looked at the spectacles, then back at Ben.

"Ben," He began, "I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation." The doors opened again, and Ben saw Letty and Riley being escorted in by two of Ian's men. They pushed them into some pews, and the men sat behind them. They were far enough away from Ben not to get involved into anything that happened, but close enough to hear what was going on. Letty's heart went out when she saw that her father was there with them. She gripped tightly at the pew in front of her. Riley saw her expression and reached out to her shoulder, putting a comforting hand on it and squeezing. Letty looked back at him thankfully and leaned back into the pew, snuggling into his side for comfort. "Let's have a look at that map." Ian moved into one of the pews, and Ben followed him. They took the Declaration from its container and carefully unrolled the back of it. Ben put on the spectacles and looked at the back, seeing _Heere at the wall_ like before. He lifted up two of the colored lenses and saw the words _Parkington Lane_. He put one lens down and read _Beneath Parkington Lane_.

"It's, uh…" Ben muttered, seeing it, "It's really quite something. It really is remarkable, take a look." He handed the glasses to Ian, who put them on and did the same thing that Ben had, reading the words on the map.

"Parkington Lane…" He muttered.

"Beneath Parkington Lane." Ben corrected. Ian took off the glasses.

"Why would the map lead us here, then take us somewhere else?" He asked, "What's the purpose?"

"Just another clue." Patrick said.

"Dad!" Ben said, his tone warning him to be quiet. He turned back to Ian, "You're right, Parkington Lane has to be here somewhere." Ben looked around the church.

"A street… inside the church." Ian muttered, looking around at all the pews.

"Not inside," Ben said, "Beneath. Beneath the church."

"Then let's go beneath the church." Ian said, standing up, he turned around to all his men, "Bring them with us." He said, gesturing to Patrick, Abigail, Riley, and Letty. Letty grimaced when one of the men roughly grabbed her arm and she shook it out of his grasp, following everyone as they went to a backroom that was undoubtedly the boiler room.

As Letty passed by him, she said, "Ben, I'm so sorry."

"None of this is your fault." Ben said, patting her shoulder as they went into the room. As Ben went in, Patrick came up to him.

"Look," He said, "Cooperation only lasts as long as the status quo is unchanged. As soon as this guy gets to wherever this thing ends, he won't need you anymore. Or any of us."

"So we find a way to make sure the status quo changes in our favor." Ben said.

"How?" Patrick asked.

"…I'm still working on it." Ben said.

"I guess I better work on it, too, then." Patrick said, a little disappointed his son still had to think about it.

Letty looked around the room, trying to find Parkington Lane. She looked at the wall curiously as she saw large squares in the wall with names engraved in each of them. Her fingers brushed across one of them, realizing it was a tomb for this person, whoever they were.

"Hey," Riley whispered, suddenly appearing beside her. She jumped slightly at his entrance, "Sorry. You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Letty said, she looked around at the tombs as she walked past them.

"So…" Riley began, trying to make a conversation with her, "What do you think the chances are of us getting out of this alive?"

"Knowing how many clues the Free Masons have come up with over the years," Letty began, "Along with how long it took my father to search until he gave up, _and_ how long it took Ben to find the Charlotte…" She looked back at Riley, "Not good." Riley nodded.

"I figured as much." Riley muttered uneasily. Letty, seeing how hopeless their situation looked, reached up to Riley's chin and turned his head so he faced her. When he did, she leaned up on her toes to press her lips to his in a kiss. When she pulled away, she saw that Riley was mildly stunned. She giggled.

"Am I that good of a kisser?" She asked, staring at Riley's face.

"Parkington Lane…" Riley murmured, staring at something behind her.

"What?" Letty turned around to see Parkington Lane written on one of the tombs, the symbol for the Free Masons at the top of it. She brushed her fingers over it. "Hey," She called out to the others, "Hey, we found it—! I mean _him_!"

"Ben!" Ian called getting his attention as he came over, "It's a name." Ben went over to the tomb, his hand going to the name.

"Parkington Lane." Ben said, "It's a third degree Master Mason, of the blue l— HEY!" Ben moved away as one of Ian's men came up to the tomb with a large wrench and started banging it against to the tomb to open it up. When they saw the coffin, Ben, Ian, Shaw, and one of Ian's men pulled out the old coffin. When it was out completely, they held it carefully above the ground so as not to damage it. It didn't really work very well, because the bottom of the coffin gave out, and Mr. Parkington Lane's skeleton fell from it. Everyone jumped in shock when it first happened, Letty let out a small squeak when she jumped. Once the initial fear had passed, everyone groaned at the smell of the decayed body.

"Careful no one steps in him." One said as they lowered the rest of the coffin on top of him. When they did so, they looked back into the tomb, seeing a tunnel leading out to somewhere else. Shaw shined a flashlight inside so they could get a better look, but all he could see was thick cobwebs that surrounded the tunnel's entrance.

"Okay," Riley began, "Who wants to go down the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?" Nobody volunteered.

"Right…" Ian said after a moment, he looked back at his men, "Agreggor, Victor, you stay here. And if _anyone_ should come out without me… Well, use your imagination." Ben looked at Ian when he said this. Ian looked back at Ben, "Shall we?" Ben was the first one to go in, followed by Ian, Shaw, Abigail, Letty, Riley, Patrick, and the other member of Ian's men who hadn't been told to stay outside the tomb.

Letty felt her heart pounding in her chest as she crawled through the tunnel. She began to regret ever taking Ben's bribe for that fancy French hotel, because she knew that if there was no treasure at the end of this tunnel, then Ian would kill them.

_This adventure might come to an end sooner than I thought._

* * *

><p><strong>HA HA! Cliffhanger.<strong>

**Oh, by the way, I'm especially psyched about posting this now, because 9/29 is my birthday. **

**I AM EIGHTEEN! WOO-HOO!**

**I am officially legal now. ;)**


	8. Chapter 8

8

When Ben came out the other side, he found a torch waiting for him on the wall. He had Ian light it and they kept going through to a much wider, and more walkable part of the tunnel. Ben led the way with the torch, and stopped when they came to a place where large, wooden planks blocked part of their path. Ben stepped over it and held out his hand to Ian on the other side to help him keep his balance as he walked over it.

"Careful," He held out his hand to his father, helping him over, "Watch your step," Patrick nodded and went over the plank. Letty was next, she grabbed Ben's forearm and he grabbed hers. She shot him a worried look, and he nodded back in assurance, to try and comfort her. Letty went over the plank. Riley followed her, holding onto Ben's shoulder as he crossed, giving him a small squeeze, a silent way of saying 'I'm with you.' Abigail was after him, and after Ben helped her cross, he grabbed her shoulder, "Come here." He pulled her to him and planted a kiss on her lips. When he pulled away, they gazed in each other's eyes for a moment, and Abigail gave him a small smile. Ben returned it and followed her out of the room.

One of Ian's men, who was behind Abigail, saw the kiss and muttered to himself, "Why does that never happen to me?"

Ben followed Ian into a hallway, where a wooden stairway waited for them, but they couldn't see where it led.

"What's this?" Ian asked, coming to something in a hexagonal shape that was made of wood. Ben went up to it with the torch so they could see it better.

"It's a chandelier." Ben said, he put the torch to it and the chandelier lit up the entire stairway, showing that it went deep underground. Ben and Riley used the rope attached to the chandelier to get it out farther, lighting their way better than before.

"Wow…" Riley murmured, seeing everything below them.

"Look at the elevators." Ben said, looking at the pieces of wood that were attached to a pulley.

"It's a dumbwaiter system." Letty said looking at it.

"How do a bunch of guys with hand tools build all this?" One of Ian's men asked.

"The same way they built the pyramids," Ben said, "And the Great Wall of China."

"Yeah, the aliens helped them." Riley said, Letty would have rolled her eyes at him if their situation didn't involve their lives in Ian's hands.

"Alright, what are we waiting for? Let's go." Ian said, one of the men handed the torch to Patrick and gestured for him to go first.

"I'm not going out on that thing." Patrick said, "Two hundred years of termite damage and rot!"

"Dad," Letty said firmly, looking at him, "Just do what they say, alright?" Patrick looked into the pleading expression on his daughter's face and nodded, going down the stairs as Ian asked. He went down the stairs, everyone following him as they traveled down the aged wood. Patrick went slowly, his foot testing the stability of each plank before he stepped on it. When one plank fell loose from the slight weight he put on it, he jumped back slightly.

"Watch your step." He warned the others as he stepped over it. He looked around them, "We're right under the trinity graveyard."

"That's probably why nobody ever found this place." Letty mused as she walked down the stairs, going over the spot with the empty plank. Everyone stopped as the ground suddenly shook, some of the dirt from above coming loose and falling further down into the hole the stairs surrounded.

"What is that?" Riley asked, hoping that it wasn't an earthquake. When it stopped, Ian looked back at Ben.

"Subway." He said, Ben nodded in confirmation, seeing as how they were pretty far underground, it was no surprise that the subway's transportation routes would be nearby.

Shaw was the first to take a step once it had stopped, and the wood gave out from beneath him. Letty and Abigail shrieked as they watched him fall through the wood below him and kept going down further and further into the darkness. Letty looked at where he had fallen, mouth agape and body trembling. If there was one thing Letty was afraid of it was falling from great heights. It wasn't heights _themselves_ that scared her, oh no, it was just _falling_ from them. And seeing Shaw fall just then reminded them of how high up they were. She shrieked again as the stairs that they stood on suddenly shifted, unable to hold all their weight at once after being shaken by the subway. Riley, taking a chance, jumped off the stairs and onto the ones across from it. He grunted in pain as his legs stung from the jump. The stairs shifted again, and Letty screamed as she fell back.

"Letty!" Ben and Patrick shouted as they saw her grab onto the wood so she wouldn't take the same path Shaw had. Her legs kicked uselessly, trying to find something stable to put them on to lift herself up. Ian looked around them as the platform he, Patrick, Abigail, and another one of his men were standing on began to shift, and saw the elevator.

"Get on the elevator." He ordered, pushing the man off the platform onto it, doing the same to Abigail and Patrick before the platform collapsed. Meanwhile, Ben was reaching out for his little sister, who looked completely terrified.

"Letty, hold on!" He reached out his hand, "Take my hand!" Letty shook her head, too afraid to let go of the wood, "Letty, I'll get you off there, come on!" Letty snuck a glance at the abyss beneath her and whimpered, grabbing onto the wood tightly, "Don't look down! Come on, Letty, I got you!" She looked up at her brother's hand, sucked up all the courage she could, and reached for it. Ben grasped it tightly and pulled her up onto the more stable part of the stairs and onto the second elevator. Letty clung to her big brother tightly, still afraid from that last experience. Riley stood up and held out his hand, reaching for the Declaration of Independence so Ben and Letty could get down safely. Letty shrieked as the elevator suddenly gave out and the two of them went plummeting down. When the elevator stopped because the rope wasn't long enough for them to go any further, one half of it separated from the rope, turning it into a decline. As Letty began to slip, Ben grabbed onto her hand so she wouldn't fall, and grabbed onto a post on the elevator to keep himself from falling.

"Get down there!" Patrick yelled at Ian, seeing his children in danger, "Get _down_ there!" The elevator Letty dangled from swung back and forth from the rope that was still attached to it. The Declaration rolled over to one side of the elevator, and Ben and Letty saw it. She looked back at her big brother, her eyes wide in fear for herself, and her brother.

"The Declaration…" She whispered, she knew that they couldn't lose it. Her eyes shifted between the document and Ben, wondering if they would fall first, or it.

"Do you trust me?" Ben asked, Letty gulped, knowing that what he actually meant was 'When I let you go, you'll be safe, and you need to let go, too.'

Letty nodded, "Yes." Her hand shook as her brother held onto it. When the elevator swung, Ben saw that there was a platform right underneath Letty. He let go of her hand and she fell away from him and onto the platform, landing on her back. Ben rolled quickly and grabbed the Declaration before it fell. He quickly strapped it to his back and looked back to see his sister was safe. The elevator moved again, falling even further, and Ben began to fall back. He grabbed onto one of the planks on the elevator, "Oh, no. Ben! Hang on!" Letty looked around for some way she could help her brother, and hissed in pain when her arm began to hurt. She looked at her shoulder, and figured her arm was injured in some way. The plank Ben held onto suddenly fell away, unable to hold his weight, and he grabbed the one underneath it so he wouldn't fall. He felt the plank shifting, and looked to see it wouldn't be able to hold his weight for too much longer either. He watched as the nail seemed to sink into the wood as it separated from the elevator. Something fell against his shoulder and looked to see a rope.

"Grab it!" Patrick's voice shouted, holding the rope down so Ben wouldn't fall. Ben grabbed it and swung onto the platform away from the elevator. Letty ran over to her brother as he climbed over the railing.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He said to her as she ran up to him, holding her arm, "I'm sorry I dropped you, I had to save the Declaration."

"No, no. It's okay." Letty said, "I would have done the same thing to you." Ben looked at his sister in surprise.

"…Really?" He asked.

"I would have dropped you both." Riley said, coming down the stairs towards them. He went up to Letty, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." She said, moving her hand away from her arm, feeling a bruise forming. The watched as Ian came down on the elevator with Abigail, Patrick, and the other goon.

"Get on." He ordered them. Ben glared at him.

"Ian," He growled out the name, "It's not worth it."

"Do you imagine any one of your lives is more valuable to me than Shaw's?" Ian asked, Letty glared at him, "We go on." Ben ground his teeth angrily.

"Status quo." Patrick said solemnly, looking at his son, "Keep the status quo." Ben looked at his father, then at Ian, then got on. Letty looked at him in shock.

"Ben!" She said, "You almost died! _I_ almost died!" Ben looked back at her.

"Letty, just get on." He said. Letty sighed and did as he asked, climbing onto the elevator with Riley following her. They stood still on the elevator as they moved it further and further down until they got to a small wooden pathway halfway down the dark tunnel where the wooden stairs ended.

"Now what?" Riley asked. As the elevator was lowered in front of it, Ben and Abigail tossed out a couple ropes to bring it around the posts near the pathway and bring the elevator closer to it.

"This is where it all leads." Patrick said as Ben tied the elevator to the post to keep it still.

"Okay, let's go." He said, taking the torch from Ian as he led the path. As they went through the tunnel, Ben used the torch to clear the path of cobwebs that covered the tunnel entrance. On the other side, Ben found two unlit torches and lit them so as to better light the room. The room itself was empty, save for a few stone ledges and a lantern. Everyone walked around, seeing the room was a dead end.

"What is this?" Riley asked, looking around.

"Where's the treasure?" One of Ian's men asked. Ben sighed as he looked away from one of the ledges, his gaze going to the floor in disappointment.

"Well?" Ian asked, growing impatient.

"Is this it?" Letty asked her brother incredulously, "We came all this way, went through all that trouble, just to meet a _dead end?_!"

"Yes." Ben replied solemnly. Ian let out a laugh of disbelief as he ran his hand through his blonde hair.

"There's gotta be something more." Riley said, trying to stay hopeful.

"Riley, there's nothing more." Ben said.

"There's… another clue—!" Ben cut Riley off.

"No, there _are_ no more clues! That's _it_, okay?" Ben shouted angrily, "It's over! End of the road! The treasure's gone! Moved. Taken somewhere else." Ian looked at Ben, for he had been watching his reaction to this the entire time.

"You're not playing games with me, are you, Ben?" He asked, "Hmm? You know where it is." Ben looked at Ian, and Letty looked between them, wondering if her brother was really bluffing, or just serious.

"No." Ben replied. Ian watched Ben's face carefully, and then turned to his subordinate.

"Okay, go." He ordered, and he started dashing off toward the elevator, torch in hand.

"Hey! Wait a minute." Ben called after Ian as he followed him. Everyone called for them to wait as they dashed off to the elevator, Ian undoing the rope and jumping on before everyone else. "Don't do this."

"You can't just leave us here!" Abigail said.

"Yes, I can." Ian replied, "Unless Ben tells me the next clue."

"There _isn't_ another clue!" Ben insisted.

"Ian, listen," Riley began nervously, "Why don't you come back down here, and we can talk through this together!" Ian pulled out a gun and pointed it at Riley.

"Don't speak again." He ordered.

"…Okay…" Riley replied, his voice quiet. Ian looked back at Ben.

"The clue." He demanded, "Where's the treasure?" When Ben didn't say anything, Ian firmly said, "Ben." Again, Ben didn't reply. So Ian reached up and cocked his gun, getting ready to shoot.

"The lantern." Patrick suddenly said. Ben looked at his father.

"Dad." He sounded as if he was trying to keep him from saying it.

Patrick looked back at his son, "The status quo has changed, son."

"Don't." Ben whispered in a pleading voice.

"It's part of Free Mason teachings." Patrick said, looking back at Ian, "In King Solomon's temple, there was a winding staircase. It signified the journey that had to be made to find the light of truth. The lantern is the clue."

"What does it mean?" Ian asked.

"Boston." Ben said, "It's Boston."

"The Old North Church in Boston where Thomas Newton hung a lantern in the steeple to signal Paul Revere if the British were coming." Patrick explained, "One if by land, two if by sea. One lantern under the winding staircase of the steeple. That's where we have to look."

"Alright," He nodded back at his goon, "Thank you."

"Hey, hey! Wait!" Letty said, "You have to take us with you!"

"Why?" Ian asked her, "So you can escape in Boston? Besides, with you out of the picture, there's less baggage to carry."

"What if we lied?" Patrick asked. Ian's face turned into a murderous expression and he pointed his gun at Patrick.

"Did you?" He asked.

"What if there's another clue?" Ben asked.

"Then I'll know right where to find you." Ian replied, he stepped back as his goon pressed down on the lever that would bring them up, "See you, Ben."

"No!" Ben shouted.

"Come back!" Letty shouted at him.

"There's no other way out!" Riley shouted.

"You need us Ian!" Patrick called, trying to get him to come back, but he didn't. Once he was gone, and the tunnel was silent, Riley spoke again.

"We're all gonna die." He said.

"It's gonna be okay, Riley." Ben said, turning to him, "And I'm sorry I yelled at you." He moved past him and back into the tunnel.

"Dad?" Letty asked as her father went to follow Ben.

"It's okay, kiddo." Patrick replied, Abigail, Riley, and Letty followed the two Gates men into the tunnel, where they started looking at the ledges again.

"Okay, boys, what's going on?" Abigail asked, "The British came by sea. It was _two_ lanterns, not one."

"He needed another clue." Patrick said, "So we gave it to him."

"It was a _fake_ clue?" Letty asked, surprised her brother would be so sneaky. Ben's fingers brushed over a symbol on one of the ledges.

"The all-seeing eye…" He murmured, "Through the all-seeing eye…"

"That means, by the time Ian figures it out," Riley said, "And comes back here, we'll still be… trapped… and he'll shoot us _then_." Ben looked down at the ledge and brushed away some old dust to reveal a small, circular object stuck into the ledge, "Either way, we're gonna die."

"Nobody's gonna die." Ben said, "There's another way out."

"Where?" Riley asked as he, Abigail, and Letty stepped closer to him.

"Through the treasure room." Ben said, he pushed down on a button and the ledge shifted, moving back slightly and to the side. He handed his torch to Riley, and Patrick handed his torch to Letty as they both went to move the door aside. Everyone smiled hopefully at the sight of their way out becoming open to them. When the door was completely open, Ben and Riley took back their torches and stepped into the room on the other side. Ben's smile fell as he looked around, seeing the room was bare except for a few pieces of furniture covered in cobwebs. Ben looked around the empty room, which looked as if it might be able to hold a treasure, and saw nothing indicating that any treasure was there.

"Looks like… someone got here first." Riley said, looking around.

"Ben, I'm so sorry." Letty said, she knew how much finding this treasure meant to Ben, and now that there was none, she knew he must have been heartbroken.

"It's gone…" He murmured.

"Listen, Ben," Patrick began, but Ben continued as he looked around.

"May have even been gone before…Charles Carroll told the story to Thomas Gates." Ben said.

"It doesn't matter." Patrick said.

"I know." Ben said, looking over at his dad, "You were right."

"No, I wasn't right." Patrick said, going over to Ben, "This room is real, Ben. And that means the treasure is real. We're in the company of some of the most brilliant minds in history because you found what they left behind for us to find, and understood the meaning of it! You did it, Ben! For all of us. Your grandfather, and all of us. And I've never been so happy to be proven wrong." Ben gazed at his father for a moment, then walked away, leaning on an old table.

"I just…" He began, "I thought I was really gonna find the treasure…" Letty looked over at her brother and came up to him.

"Okay, then." She said, "We'll just keep looking for it." Ben looked up at his sister, "I believed in this treasure as much as Dad did, and I'm not going to back down from this. Not now. Not ever."

Abigail took a step forward, "I'm in." Ben glanced back at her, then over at his sister, who smiled proudly at him.

"Okay." He said, Letty's smile grew just the slightest.

"Not to be Johnny Raincloud, here," Riley said, "But that's not gonna happen. Because, as far as I can see, we're still trapped in here." Letty looked around, seeing that Riley was right, and there wasn't another way out. "Now, Ben, where's this other way out?"

"That's it. It doesn't make any sense." Ben said, looking around the room, "Because the first thing the builders would have done after getting down here was cut a secondary shaft back out for air in case of cave-ins."

"Right." Patrick agreed, looking around the room. Ben went over to where there was a ledge, similar to the one they had come in from, only, instead of a button, there were iron symbols engraved into the wall. All of them were Free Mason symbols, at least, that's what Letty assumed, except for one. One of the iron circles was a small, strangely shaped indention with a small circle beneath it. Ben's fingers brushed over it, recognizing the shape it made. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the meerschaum pipe.

"Could it really be that simple…?" He asked himself quietly as he held it in his hands. Letty looked at the pipe, then at her brother.

"_The secret lies with Charlotte_…" She quoted, remembering the old calligraphy written on the piece of paper in their grandfather's book. Ben looked at her, then back at the pipe, separating it from the stem and lifting it up, placing it in the strangely shaped indention. It was a perfect fit, then he lifted up the stem and placed it in the circle, watching as it sunk in. Then, he carefully turned it like a handle, making the pipe turn upside-down until a deep clicking sound was heard. He pushed it in, and a gust of wind suddenly blew at them from the side as a door opened. Everyone glanced around at everyone else, Ben's gaze lasting a bit longer on Abigail's and Letty's lasting a bit longer on Riley's than the others. Everyone walked into the room, and saw that it was filled with all kinds of treasure. A large amount of golden statues, golden goblets, beautiful jewelry, and various other things of high value.

They started walking around to get a better look at the treasure before them. Abigail went over to a small desk that had various scrolls resting atop it. She gasped quietly in awe as she came closer. "Scrolls from the Library of Alexandria…" Her eyes slowly traveled over each one, "Could this really be possible?"

Letty walked over to another part of the room, finding a medallion attached to a string that was covered in thick dust. She carefully wiped it away with his thumb to see it was a medallion of the unfinished pyramid, and the all-seeing eye. Her father came up beside her and looked at it over her shoulder.

Riley looked over one of the statues, "It's a big… bluish-green man… with a strange-looking goatee…" He said, his voice in disbelief, "I'm guessing that's significant." Letty looked over at him, and snorted quietly to herself as she saw him hugging the jade statue.

Ben walked over to a podium with a small bowl at the top. He reached his fingers inside it, and came up with a strange substance similar to gunpowder. He put his torch to it and watched as it lit up. The flame traveled down a trough full of the same powder. The room was lit up by the flames, revealing that instead of it being the size of a large living room as one might find in a mansion, it was actually the size of a stadium, and it was filled completely with valuable, historic treasures. It was an amazing sight to behold for everyone, they saw an innumerable amount of statues, paintings, and other ancient, historic treasures. Patrick, in excitement and pride, clapped his arm around Ben's shoulders, squeezing tightly as he looked around the room. Letty almost squealed to herself at the sight of it, and she had trouble containing herself, because she did excited jumps in the air beside Ben and Abigail. She reached over and hugged the blonde in happiness, who was more than willing to return the gesture as they looked around in awe. Letty released Abigail from her hold and looked over at Riley and came across a surprising sight.

"Riley, are you crying?" She asked, everyone looked over at the young man, and saw that his eyes were filled with unshed tears of happiness.

"Look." He said, his gaze pinpointed on something. Letty followed his line of sight and saw a flight of wooden stairs heading up to a door, "Stairs…" Letty smiled, went over to him and kissed his cheek as she hugged him, partly because she didn't want him to start crying, and partly because she was still excited about finding the treasure.

* * *

><p>It didn't take them long to get up the stairs and out of the treasure room. When they came to the end, Ben kicked against the part of the wall that was blocking their way until he busted through it to the other side. He looked around and saw a janitor, who must have worked for the trinity church, kneeling near the broken casket they had moved out of the way to first get underground.<p>

"Hi." Ben greeted, as if he hadn't just destroyed the headstone to a fake, indoor grave, "You have a cellphone I could borrow?"

* * *

><p>It didn't take very long for Ben to get a response from the FBI after he had called Agent Sadusky and told him to meet him at the trinity church. Almost fifteen minutes after he had made the call, the building was swarmed with FBI agents. Ben was waiting for Agent Sadusky on the stairs in front of the podium that held a very large version of an Old English bible. Sadusky walked up to Ben, who handed him the Declaration of Independence as Abigail, Riley, Patrick, and Letty sat down in the pews, watching what would happen.<p>

Sadusky looked at the container that held the document that was now in his hands, then back at Ben.

"Just like that?" He asked.

"Just like that." Ben replied.

"You _do_ know you just handed me you biggest bargaining chip?" Sadusky asked, holding up the Declaration.

"The Declaration of Independence is not a bargaining chip." Ben said, "Not to me."

Sadusky looked at him with a sort of silent admiration for a moment, then he nodded, "Have a seat." Ben did so, sitting down on the stairs he had before, and Sadusky sat beside him, "So, what's your offer?"

"Uh, how about a bribe?" Ben asked, "Say, oh, ten billion dollars?" Sadusky looked at him with a smirk.

"I take it you found the treasure." He said.

"It's about five stories beneath your shoes." Ben replied, pointing to the ground beneath his feet. Sadusky let out a thoughtful hum, his fingers going to a ring on his pinky, and fiddling with it.

"You know," He began, "The Templars and the Free Masons believed that the treasure was too great for any one man to have. Not even a king." Ben looked at him, surprised that he knew that particular piece of information. Ben's eyes went to the ring the agent fiddled with, and saw the symbol of the Free Masons on it. "That's why they went to such lengths to keep it hidden."

"That's right." Ben said, looking back at Sadusky. "The founding fathers believed the same thing about government." Ben didn't notice how Patrick looked at him proudly. "I figure their solution will work for the treasure, too."

"Give it to the people." Sadusky said.

"Divide it amongst the Smithsonian, the Louvre, the Cairo museum," Ben said, "There's thousands of years of world history down there, and it belongs to the world, and everybody in it." Sadusky leaned back slightly with an amused smirk on his face.

"You really don't understand the concept of a bargaining chip." He said, Ben let out a small laugh at his words, as did Riley, Letty, Abigail, and Patrick.

"Okay, here's what I want," He began, "Dr. Chase gets off completely clean, not even a little post-it on her service record."

"Okay," Sadusky said in agreement. Abigail smiled at Ben, even though he didn't notice how she appreciated it.

"My sister gets off clean," Ben continued, "You _un_-shut down her laboratory, and let the NYPD still work with her." Sadusky nodded again, Letty smiled widely at her brother.

"And I would be more than willing to offer my services to the FBI." Letty put in from her seat. Sadusky looked over at her with an amused smirk and Patrick pushed her back into her seat, "What? If he's gonna bring my lab back, I might as well advertise business." Ben let out a small chuckle before he turned back to Sadusky.

"Also, I want the credit for the find to go to the entire Gates family, with the assistance of Mr. Riley Poole."

"What about you?" Sadusky asked, curious as to what Ben wanted for himself.

"I'd really love not to go to prison." Ben said, "I can't even _begin_ to describe how much I would love not to go to prison."

"Someone's got to go to prison, Ben." Sadusky said.

"Well, if you've got a helicopter," Ben began, "I think I can help with that."

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry it took so long. I was being lazy and I had schoolwork.<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

9

Ian used a pair of large garden clippers to cut through the lock on the gate of the Old North Church in Boston. Once it was cut through, they went through the gate to the doors of the old church, where one of Ian's men began picking at the lock on the door. Seconds later, the sound of sirens was heard, and they were surrounded by police and agents of the FBI, all of them pointing guns at them and telling them to put their hands up. They did as the police asked and held up their hands, seeing no way out of this. Ian was pushed up against one of the cars as they handcuffed his hands behind his back. Agent Sadusky walked over to him.

"You're under arrest, Mr. Howe." He said to him, "We got you on kidnapping, attempted murder," He smirked a little, "And trespassing on government property." Ian looked away from Sadusky and looked across the street. He saw someone's silhouette in the doorway with someone beside him and looked to see Ben and Letty come into the light of the streetlamps.

_You have __**got**__ to be kidding me_, Ian thought when he saw them. Ben and Letty grinned at the sight of him being arrested. Letty waved mockingly at him as they pushed him into the police car. She and Ben looked over at each other and Ben held out his hand, palm up to her. She smiled at him and slapped the low-five he was offering.

* * *

><p><em>3 months later…<em>

"Yeah, you got it, chief." Riley said on his cellphone as he walked through a garden with Ben and Abigail, "Thank you, bye." He hung up and put the phone in his pocket, "They want us in Cairo next week for the opening of the exhibit. They're sending a private jet."

"That's fun." Abigail said.

"Yeah, big whoop." Riley said uncaringly, "We could've," He got his face near Ben's, "Had a whole _fleet_ of private jets!" Ben looked away from his friend, sighing as he was ranting yet again, "Ten percent, Ben. They offered you ten percent and you turned it down."

"Riley, we've been over this." Ben said, "It was too much. I couldn't accept it."

"I actually still have this splinter that's been festering for three months," Riley said, pointing to his finger, "From an old piece of wood."

"Okay, I'll tell you what." Ben said, "Next time we find a treasure that redefines history for all mankind, _you_ make the call on finder's fee."

"That's funny." Riley said, clearly un-amused. He looked over at Abigail, "What do you care? You got the girl, while _mine_ flew off to Paris."

"That's true." Ben and Abigail said, leaning in to share a kiss.

"Yeah… Rub it in." He said, he walked away from them, "Enjoy your spoils." He went over to his red Ferrari car and jumped into it, "While I sit on one percent. One stinkin' percent… _half_ of one percent, actually." He shifted in his seat, "One percent… unbelievable."

"I'm sorry for your suffering, Riley." Ben said. They looked up as they heard a car pulling up and saw a yellow taxi cab stopping in the driveway. Stepping out was a young lady, who smiled happily at the sight of them.

"Hey, Ben!" She said happily, waving at him.

"Letty!" Ben said happily, going over to his sister and hugging her hello. Riley jumped out of his car as Abigail went over and hugged her as well.

"It's good to see you." Abigail said, pulling away, "How was Paris?"

"Oh, _fantastic_." Letty said happily, "I can't tell you how awesome it was." She turned to her brother, "Thanks again for the trip, Ben. It was really fun."

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." Ben replied, he was pushed aside by Riley as he came up to Letty.

"Hey," He greeted.

"Hey, Riley," Letty said in return, hugging him as well.

"So, what, you decided to pay us a visit before you headed back to New York?" Ben asked. Letty shook her head.

"Actually, I'm not heading back to New York." She said, everyone looked at her in surprise.

"You're not?" Riley asked, a smile on his face, but he quickly hid it as he tried to act serious, "What about your lab?"

"Well, that's the thing." She said, "The FBI may have brought it back, but my assistant," She looked over at Ben, "You know, the chemical mishap waiting to happen?" Ben nodded, "Well, it happened. He filled the entire lab with cyanide gas on accident, then there was some kind of sulfur explosion and now the entire place smells like rotten eggs, and that boy just couldn't run a business if he tried, so they had to shut it down."

"That sucks." Ben said.

"Not really." Letty replied, "I'm actually starting up a new lab in town, with_ much_ better assistants."

"Are you?" Abigail asked, "Locally?"

"Yeah, locally, available to the public and police if they need it, which I really, _really_ hope they do, because cops are _such_ good customers." Everyone laughed a little at her, "But, you know," She turned to Riley, "There _are_ these new computers I got for my lab, and I could really use some help setting them up."

"Oh, I'm your man." Riley said, "I would totally love to help you out with that. We can take my car."

"Thanks," Letty said. She followed him over to the Ferrari and smiled at him, "This is a nice car."

"I know." Riley said, hopping into the driver's seat, Letty did the same to the passenger seat. Letty looked over at her brother as she buckled herself in.

"For the record, Ben," She began, "I like the house."

"You know, I chose this estate because in 1812 Charles Carroll met—" Riley cut Ben off.

"Yeah, someone that did something in history and had fun. That's great. Wonderful." He said impatiently, wanting to get to have some private time with the hot young forensic scientist sitting in his passenger seat. He started up the car and put on a pair of sunglasses, and looked over at him, "Could've had a bigger house." He drove off the estate and onto the road. Letty smiled comfortably as they drove. "So, where's this lab of yours?"

"It's downtown, near the state university." Letty said, "By the way, Riley, do you know of any good places to rent out?"

"Rent out?" Riley asked, Letty nodded.

"Yeah, I'm trying to find a good place to stay with decent rent." She said, a smile on her face, "Maybe I could, I dunno, get a roommate, cut the rent in half." Riley smiled as he caught her subtle hint, "Know any places like that?"

"Actually I do." Riley said, "My place has a rent of three hundred bucks a month. Move in with me, and we could take it down to one hundred and fifty each." Letty smiled.

"A hundred and fifty dollars a month," She said, "That sounds good to me." She looked over at him, "Oh, and, you know, you still owe me that pizza." Riley smiled.

"Oh this is gonna be fun." He said, "Really fun." Letty laughed as they drove off down the road, heading for their destination, very pleased to be going together.

END

* * *

><p><strong>I know, short ending, but I finally finished!<strong>

**And if any of you are wondering, I plan on doing a sequel to this with the second movie.**

**And here are all the awesome people I want to thank for commenting/favoriting my story:**

**Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967**

**Phillipfan24**

**bloody alanna**

**vampirelover14**

**BoOkWoRmAbC**

**Singerdreamer42**

**Tsin. Luna**

**xoshellbee**

**XxCherryblossomxX33**

**XxXxXxILuvNicoDiAngeloxXxXxX**

**You guys rock! Keep your eyes posted for the sequel!**


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